Icchata

Nebinese (later life in freedom)

**Icchata** is a character who is the protagonist of Part IV (which is set around three centuries before the main story, framed as a telling by Dante). She is a badger-like mani who works at a mine in the dreary region of Miskún; the side story known as Icchata's Story deals with her attempts to start a mani uprising at the mine where she works under cruel conditions. After fleeing the mine, she lived in the Nebi region and wrote an autobiography that would become the first published book written by a mani.

## Biography

### Icchata's Story

Icchata was born in Arberre, likely in a mani reserve. However, at a young age, she became separated from her family and sold or smuggled into slavery. During her early childhood, she was shipped to the Miskún region to work in mines due to her strong stature; as a result, she had few memories of Arberre, but what little she remembered was very fond and resulted in a lifelong yearning for her birth region.

She worked in the mine for upwards of a decade, her daily schedule consisting largely of digging, mine maintenance, and (sometimes) guard duty. She taught herself to read and write through books and newspapers she stole from human workers. Although originally she gained trust among the mine's human managers, as unrest began to grow among the mani miners and many of her coworkers were beaten or killed for incompliance with mine rules, she became more violent towards the mine's human staff and administration. The final straw was when a failed rebellion among the mine's workers resulted in Vahaka, one of her dearest friends, being executed.

Icchata resolved to rebel and free the mine workers, and attempted to rally the workers without the mine administration noticing; she even forged an alliance with a neighboring human farmer. Despite resistance from many of the mani elders (the *de facto* community leaders of the mani workers), Icchata managed to gather majority support, but when the administration was notified, a sudden onslaught of gunfire reduced the rebellion to fleeing the bloodshed. Icchata managed to escape with a small group of friends, including Vahaka's sister. In the commotion, Icchata was shot in the arm.

As the group progressed, with the goal of fleeing Miskún for the Nebi region (which had stricter laws regarding mani labor), Icchata's arm worried the group, but ultimately the wound did not become infected and she survived. Over the duration of the long, often lonely travel, Icchata lost much of the drive and pep of her personality, becoming more of an ascetic. Despite this, she still held her goal of returning to Arberre close to heart.

Upon reaching the Nebinese border, the group decided to stop in the first village they found, where they successfully applied for protection. Icchata made the small village her home, and upon writing a basic version of her story and presenting it to the village leadership, they granted her citizenship equivalent to a human citizen. Over the next few years, Icchata expanded on this manuscript, leading to the publication of her autobiography in book form. Initially published in Nebinese, the book was quickly translated into other languages, including Arberrian (English); the book grew in popularity worldwide throughout the next few years, and arguably formed the inspiration for many other mani rebellions throughout the world, indirectly triggering the First World War.

A delegation from the Arberre region, then a group of loosely-connected states, proposed bringing Icchata to her homeland as she wished within her book. Unbeknownst to her, the delegation was on its way to Nebi when she passed away from old age. She was buried by the village in its traditional burial grounds in the nearby mountains, and when the Arberrian delegation arrived, the village refused to relocate her bones.

### Main Timeline of *The Dhavas*

Icchata is long-gone by the time *The Dhavas* begins; however, Dante holds a deep admiration for Icchata and has a goal of one day locating her remains and repatriating them to Arberre.

Icchata's Story, a sidestory that takes place between the Providence Islands and Hana Sagas, is framed as a retelling by Dante.

### Legacy

Icchata's legacy has been debated within the world of *The Dhavas*; many manis have heard the story being told, while a small minority have even read her book for themselves. Her book is considered by many historians to have triggered the onslaught of mani rebellions in the decades after her escape from Miskún, which in turn triggered The First World War, which itself created the world's current political alignment. Thus, it could be argued that Icchata has a more momentous legacy than any other mortal in world history.

The mine where Icchata worked continued to operate, but became the target of frequent vandalism and attacks. Largely as it came to little financial cost to them, the companies that once relied partially on the mine's output pulled out of their contracts, and the mine shut down a few years before Icchata's death. The remaining manis were sold off at auction, where a majority were bought into freedom by supporters of Icchata's work.

Icchata's book continues to be in print during *The Dhavas.* Although it is sold freely in Arberre, Nebi, and even Miskún, in some regions such as Sekha, it continues to be edited, censored, or banned outright.

Shortly before the events of *The Dhavas*, historians uncovered evidence at the excavated mine where Icchata once worked, which allegedly cast doubt on certain minor elements of Icchata's biography. Critics of her and mani rights in general have seized on this opportunity to cast the long-dead author as a fraud.

## Personality

In the mine, Icchata was known as both a hard worker and also a hothead with bold opinions. She would do anything possible to help the mani community there as long as the humans did not catch notice; despite her altruism, however, her façade seemed to be one of deeply-held anger and hatred towards humans.

However, the trauma of her failed rebellion as well as the long, arduous process of escape turned her into more of a calm, if troubled, individual. She became more spiritual and modest, but the writing style of her book held much of the passion that seemed to have been lost.