Established Status: 2 years! She's been in Old Town. Her memories of working at the brothel are all fake, so her time in game starts specifically just after Kaz recruits her.
Canon: Six of Crows
Canon Point: Post canon, so just after the end of Crooked Kingdom.
Citizenship: Undocumented
Job: Gang member? Teenage delinquent?
Abilities Inej is a normal human! All of her abilities are taught.
→Acrobat: Inej was raised as a performer, which means she has incredible balance and gymnastics skills. She's a hell of climber, too, and often scales buildings and travels over roofs rather than on the streets.
→Spy stuff: She's taught herself to be very, very quiet, to the point that she somehow managed to sneak up on Kaz with bells on her ankles. She's incredibly observant, and while she's not skilled at lockpicking like Kaz is, she's capable of breaking into places and leaving unnoticed. Basically, she's called "the Wraith" for a reason.
→Knives???: Inej has learned to defend herself, mostly with her six (6!!!) knives. She's more of a stealth fighter, relying on going unnoticed until it's too late over brute force. However, Inej is largely self trained, which means that she depends on smarts and trickery to win fights, and is at a disadvantage when pitted against an opponent with formal training.
→Languages: She can speak Kerch, Ravkan, and Suli, although that won't matter until she gets a significant chunk of her memories back.
Personality: Inej is essentially a whole mess of issues, just like the rest of the cast, courtesy of the wonders of Ketterdam. From what we know, she was a normal teenager before she got snatched, and quite a few of those traits have persisted. Inej is incredibly daring, willing (and in fact insistent on) walking a high wire with no net. Since she was part of a Suli caravan that travelled the country, made up mostly of her family, she puts a very high value on family and culture, and she’s very compassionate. Inej is thinking of other people almost always, and there’s a part of her that’s always afraid she’s going to cross the line.
Of course, her experiences have hardened her quite a bit. Inej states that, when she was first bought by Tante Heleen, she was convinced someone would rescue her, but as the months went on her hope dwindled. That’s left Inej very realistic, almost edging on pessimistic, and this mindset is not really helped along by Kaz. In fact, a few of Inej’s coping mechanisms after escaping the brothel seem nudged along by Kaz in some way. For example, Kaz repeats the ever so pleasant “better terrible truths than kind lies”, and she seems to respect him for never promising her happiness, simply a sort of freedom.
Inej was victimized for a year, and so she’s hardened herself. At first, she’s motivated purely by survival. She’s fully aware of her image—a tiny waif of a Suli girl—and so works hard to cultivate her dangerous reputation. When Kaz brings Inej into his gang, he warns her that he won’t be able to watch out for her, and so Inej makes a point of ruthlessly watching out for herself. Every time one of the members of the Dregs called her a name or catcalled her, she went out of her way to respond immediately and violently, to “make the risk higher than the reward”. She’s learned to read a room and to especially read her enemies, and she’s rarely taken by surprise. Befitting her role as a spy, Inej prefers to be very sneaky, and to strike before anyone even realizes she’s there. She takes comfort from her title as the Wraith, and takes comfort in her knives, too, which she keeps on her at all times, to the point that when Kaz is demanding a trade of hostages, he demands Inej’s knives come back with her.
She’s been left with a huge mess of trust issues, too. This is complicated by the fact that there’s clearly a part of Inej that longs for a feeling of belonging, but more importantly, a makeshift family. At first she tries to deal with this realistically. The Dregs, after all, are not her family at all, but coworkers. Over the course of the book, she begins to realize that her closest friends, which consist of the team Kaz picked to infiltrate the Ice Court, are incredibly precious to her and have become her new family. Still, when she’s being held by Van Eck, she files through a list in her head—Nina is the only one she thinks will be insistent on saving her out of pure affection and friendship. Wylan will do it because he’s a good person, Matthias will do it because of his overwhelming sense of honor. Jesper, while he likes her, in horribly in debt, and leaving Inej where she is is far more profitable to him. And then there’s Kaz—Kaz won’t try to rescue her at all, because in Inej’s mind, it’s a simple matter of logic, and Inej is worth nothing next to Kuwei. What’s interesting is that in the other character’s POV chapters, we see the exact opposite is true. Every single member of the crew is overcome with the need to rescue her, even Kaz. While she realizes this later, considering her development is being temporarily reset a bit, this will still be an issue for her.
In some ways Inej will always be the Suli girl who grew up in a large, close knit family. She’s compassionate, and this keeps her from becoming a monster like so many other people in Ketterdam. When Kaz finds out one of his men betrayed them and leaves him for dead, part of Inej longs to go to the man anyway and hold his hand as he dies. When she knocks out a young Suli girl working for Tante Heleen to steal her costume, Inej wonders if the girl chose her life willing, and hopes that she has. It’s rare that she holds a grudge if the other person is remorseful, and she’s one of the members of the cast that is the most genuine with her feelings. She also acts as a (sort of) voice of morality for Kaz, although he doesn’t always listen to her. She’s always ready and willing to call him out when he goes too far, and is one of the few people who can get away with it. Her morals aren’t gone completely, they’ve just been shoved sideways a bit. Inej tells herself the Wraith doesn’t have time for traitors, and leaves the man to bleed out. After Van Eck nearly shatters her legs, she promises herself she’ll kill him, and while she’s trapped in his theater, she goes out of her way to figure out what would hurt her Suli babysitter the most and use it against him. In her own ways, Inej is vindictive and vengeful, it just takes much more to get her there.
The incredible 180 between Inej’s life before being kidnapped and after has been, as you can imagine, really, really hard for her to accept. Inej is a super religious person. She prays regularly and names her knives after her saints, and she recites their names whenever she’s afraid or knows something dangerous is about to go down. From what we know of these saints, they are super not down with killing, but Inej tells herself that they’ll accept her deeds because she was trying to survive. She does consider herself tainted, and thinks of the girl she was before Ketterdam as dead. She’s afraid to find her parents again, because she’s not sure they’ll accept her after the things she’s done. Inej has also developed a (very understandable) issue with being touched. Most of the time she’s fine with it, and she finds physical affection comforting from those she’s close to. However, she does mention that every once in a while, one of her friends will hold her hand or touch her waist and it will bring up a whole slew of terrible memories.
On a more surface level, Inej tends to strike most people as reserved and a bit of an old lady in a teenager’s body at times, due to her habit of repeating Suli wisdom to make a point. She’s not shy about stating her opinions, and can be very stubborn about them. She’s very adaptable, which allows her to keep up with Kaz’s last minute changes in plan even if he doesn’t tell her about them, and even if it drives her nuts. She can be teasing and playful with those she’s close to, making dumb jokes about waffles and about how Matthias is a bright yellow, brooding tulip. With Kaz, she tends more towards deadpan. She also has a habit of being sentimental, although less so after her time in the Barrel. So, basically, Inej tries really hard and would prefer to be a spotlessly good person, Ketterdam just really doesn’t want her to be.
AU History: Inej's history will track pretty closely to her canon one.
- Inej is from a smaller planet outside the quad, and her family was part of a group of performers who traveled from planet to planet on a ship, as discussed in the brainstorming meme. From a young age, Inej was taught a variety of skills, from tumbling and gymnastics to walking the highwire, and she was incredibly fearless.
- When Inej was 15, she was snatched by a group of slavers from the ship and taken to Westerley, where she was sold to Tante Heleen and made to work in a brothel in Old Town. Inej was forced to sign a contract that meant she had to pay off the price Heleen paid for her herself, but in reality, Heleen had no plans to let her go.
- One day a young man named Kaz Brekker came to the brothel. Inej initially took him for a patron, but then realized he was there for information. With no other options, Inej snuck up behind him when Heleen wasn't looking and offered to help him.
- Kaz paid off Inej's debt and negotiated new terms with her. She would sign a new contract with no tricks or catches, and work off that debt by being a spy for Kaz's gang. She accepted.
- Over the next few years, Inej learned to be Kaz's "spider" and eventually gained his trust. She also learned how to survive in Old Town, and how to make herself dangerous, enough to gain notoriety as the Wraith.
CRAU: n/a
Original History: I had to write my own, which is here. Sorry it's so long!
Inventory: - A set of six knives, two of which are attached to mechanisms that release from under her sleeves with a trigger, sort of Assassin's Creed style - Brass knuckles, which she apparently keeps in her pocket - Slippers with flexible rubber soles made specifically for climbing - And her clothes, of course
Inej Ghafa | Six of Crows | Reserved
Player
Name: Jenny
Age: 25
Contact:
Preferred Pronouns: She/her
Other Characters: Kate Bishop
Character
Name: Inej Ghafa
Age: 18 (16 + 2 years in game)
Memory Option: Deteriorating AU!
Established Status: 2 years! She's been in Old Town. Her memories of working at the brothel are all fake, so her time in game starts specifically just after Kaz recruits her.
Canon: Six of Crows
Canon Point: Post canon, so just after the end of Crooked Kingdom.
Citizenship: Undocumented
Job: Gang member? Teenage delinquent?
Abilities Inej is a normal human! All of her abilities are taught.
→Acrobat: Inej was raised as a performer, which means she has incredible balance and gymnastics skills. She's a hell of climber, too, and often scales buildings and travels over roofs rather than on the streets.
→Spy stuff: She's taught herself to be very, very quiet, to the point that she somehow managed to sneak up on Kaz with bells on her ankles. She's incredibly observant, and while she's not skilled at lockpicking like Kaz is, she's capable of breaking into places and leaving unnoticed. Basically, she's called "the Wraith" for a reason.
→Knives???: Inej has learned to defend herself, mostly with her six (6!!!) knives. She's more of a stealth fighter, relying on going unnoticed until it's too late over brute force. However, Inej is largely self trained, which means that she depends on smarts and trickery to win fights, and is at a disadvantage when pitted against an opponent with formal training.
→Languages: She can speak Kerch, Ravkan, and Suli, although that won't matter until she gets a significant chunk of her memories back.
Personality:
Inej is essentially a whole mess of issues, just like the rest of the cast, courtesy of the wonders of Ketterdam. From what we know, she was a normal teenager before she got snatched, and quite a few of those traits have persisted. Inej is incredibly daring, willing (and in fact insistent on) walking a high wire with no net. Since she was part of a Suli caravan that travelled the country, made up mostly of her family, she puts a very high value on family and culture, and she’s very compassionate. Inej is thinking of other people almost always, and there’s a part of her that’s always afraid she’s going to cross the line.
Of course, her experiences have hardened her quite a bit. Inej states that, when she was first bought by Tante Heleen, she was convinced someone would rescue her, but as the months went on her hope dwindled. That’s left Inej very realistic, almost edging on pessimistic, and this mindset is not really helped along by Kaz. In fact, a few of Inej’s coping mechanisms after escaping the brothel seem nudged along by Kaz in some way. For example, Kaz repeats the ever so pleasant “better terrible truths than kind lies”, and she seems to respect him for never promising her happiness, simply a sort of freedom.
Inej was victimized for a year, and so she’s hardened herself. At first, she’s motivated purely by survival. She’s fully aware of her image—a tiny waif of a Suli girl—and so works hard to cultivate her dangerous reputation. When Kaz brings Inej into his gang, he warns her that he won’t be able to watch out for her, and so Inej makes a point of ruthlessly watching out for herself. Every time one of the members of the Dregs called her a name or catcalled her, she went out of her way to respond immediately and violently, to “make the risk higher than the reward”. She’s learned to read a room and to especially read her enemies, and she’s rarely taken by surprise. Befitting her role as a spy, Inej prefers to be very sneaky, and to strike before anyone even realizes she’s there. She takes comfort from her title as the Wraith, and takes comfort in her knives, too, which she keeps on her at all times, to the point that when Kaz is demanding a trade of hostages, he demands Inej’s knives come back with her.
She’s been left with a huge mess of trust issues, too. This is complicated by the fact that there’s clearly a part of Inej that longs for a feeling of belonging, but more importantly, a makeshift family. At first she tries to deal with this realistically. The Dregs, after all, are not her family at all, but coworkers. Over the course of the book, she begins to realize that her closest friends, which consist of the team Kaz picked to infiltrate the Ice Court, are incredibly precious to her and have become her new family. Still, when she’s being held by Van Eck, she files through a list in her head—Nina is the only one she thinks will be insistent on saving her out of pure affection and friendship. Wylan will do it because he’s a good person, Matthias will do it because of his overwhelming sense of honor. Jesper, while he likes her, in horribly in debt, and leaving Inej where she is is far more profitable to him. And then there’s Kaz—Kaz won’t try to rescue her at all, because in Inej’s mind, it’s a simple matter of logic, and Inej is worth nothing next to Kuwei. What’s interesting is that in the other character’s POV chapters, we see the exact opposite is true. Every single member of the crew is overcome with the need to rescue her, even Kaz. While she realizes this later, considering her development is being temporarily reset a bit, this will still be an issue for her.
In some ways Inej will always be the Suli girl who grew up in a large, close knit family. She’s compassionate, and this keeps her from becoming a monster like so many other people in Ketterdam. When Kaz finds out one of his men betrayed them and leaves him for dead, part of Inej longs to go to the man anyway and hold his hand as he dies. When she knocks out a young Suli girl working for Tante Heleen to steal her costume, Inej wonders if the girl chose her life willing, and hopes that she has. It’s rare that she holds a grudge if the other person is remorseful, and she’s one of the members of the cast that is the most genuine with her feelings. She also acts as a (sort of) voice of morality for Kaz, although he doesn’t always listen to her. She’s always ready and willing to call him out when he goes too far, and is one of the few people who can get away with it. Her morals aren’t gone completely, they’ve just been shoved sideways a bit. Inej tells herself the Wraith doesn’t have time for traitors, and leaves the man to bleed out. After Van Eck nearly shatters her legs, she promises herself she’ll kill him, and while she’s trapped in his theater, she goes out of her way to figure out what would hurt her Suli babysitter the most and use it against him. In her own ways, Inej is vindictive and vengeful, it just takes much more to get her there.
The incredible 180 between Inej’s life before being kidnapped and after has been, as you can imagine, really, really hard for her to accept. Inej is a super religious person. She prays regularly and names her knives after her saints, and she recites their names whenever she’s afraid or knows something dangerous is about to go down. From what we know of these saints, they are super not down with killing, but Inej tells herself that they’ll accept her deeds because she was trying to survive. She does consider herself tainted, and thinks of the girl she was before Ketterdam as dead. She’s afraid to find her parents again, because she’s not sure they’ll accept her after the things she’s done. Inej has also developed a (very understandable) issue with being touched. Most of the time she’s fine with it, and she finds physical affection comforting from those she’s close to. However, she does mention that every once in a while, one of her friends will hold her hand or touch her waist and it will bring up a whole slew of terrible memories.
On a more surface level, Inej tends to strike most people as reserved and a bit of an old lady in a teenager’s body at times, due to her habit of repeating Suli wisdom to make a point. She’s not shy about stating her opinions, and can be very stubborn about them. She’s very adaptable, which allows her to keep up with Kaz’s last minute changes in plan even if he doesn’t tell her about them, and even if it drives her nuts. She can be teasing and playful with those she’s close to, making dumb jokes about waffles and about how Matthias is a bright yellow, brooding tulip. With Kaz, she tends more towards deadpan. She also has a habit of being sentimental, although less so after her time in the Barrel. So, basically, Inej tries really hard and would prefer to be a spotlessly good person, Ketterdam just really doesn’t want her to be.
AU History: Inej's history will track pretty closely to her canon one.
- Inej is from a smaller planet outside the quad, and her family was part of a group of performers who traveled from planet to planet on a ship, as discussed in the brainstorming meme. From a young age, Inej was taught a variety of skills, from tumbling and gymnastics to walking the highwire, and she was incredibly fearless.
- When Inej was 15, she was snatched by a group of slavers from the ship and taken to Westerley, where she was sold to Tante Heleen and made to work in a brothel in Old Town. Inej was forced to sign a contract that meant she had to pay off the price Heleen paid for her herself, but in reality, Heleen had no plans to let her go.
- One day a young man named Kaz Brekker came to the brothel. Inej initially took him for a patron, but then realized he was there for information. With no other options, Inej snuck up behind him when Heleen wasn't looking and offered to help him.
- Kaz paid off Inej's debt and negotiated new terms with her. She would sign a new contract with no tricks or catches, and work off that debt by being a spy for Kaz's gang. She accepted.
- Over the next few years, Inej learned to be Kaz's "spider" and eventually gained his trust. She also learned how to survive in Old Town, and how to make herself dangerous, enough to gain notoriety as the Wraith.
CRAU: n/a
Original History: I had to write my own, which is here. Sorry it's so long!
Inventory:
- A set of six knives, two of which are attached to mechanisms that release from under her sleeves with a trigger, sort of Assassin's Creed style
- Brass knuckles, which she apparently keeps in her pocket
- Slippers with flexible rubber soles made specifically for climbing
- And her clothes, of course
Samples: Here! Hopefully those are enough, rip.
Miscellaneous Notes: