NaydaIndex | Time Under Chaos | Non-Player Characters | Non-Canonical NPCs | Nayda  Nayda is played by Vasundhara Das "I passed along the hallway and decided to use the back stair. As I made the turn, I saw that there was a figure standing at the top. It was a woman, and she was looking the other way. She had on a full-length red-and-yellow gown. Her hair was very dark and she had lovely shoulders..." (Sign of Chaos) Inside that pleasing mortal shell lies the spirit of an ancient and malevolent demon; one that has found a niche for itself in the tangled politics of the Golden Circle. From her former life as the dutiful daughter of an Ambassador, Nayda has blossomed into a ruthless and efficient politician. Assisted by her arcane abilities and her good relations with the Merlin's Court, Nayda has made Begma her own personal empire and a defence against Chaos Lords who might try to bind her. Though she has come to some arrangement with Mandor to impose Chaosian authority in the Golden Circle, she remains deeply suspicious of Logrus users and is thought to have been responsible for more than a few murders. Nayda is the head of Begman internal security, the SSP ("Sword and Shield of the Party"), and has created an atmosphere of paranoia in Begma's capitals where anyone could be arrested at any time of day or night. When the terror was at its height, trains ran day and night moving detainees out of the cities to the remote gulags where they would be worked remorselessly to arm and equip Begma's burgeoning military. With King Olaf's death (some say engineered by his Prime Minister), Nayda has felt more secure in her position and the rates of arrest have returned to their pre-invasion levels. The SSP and their mistress are blamed for many ills in the Golden Circle, including Jasra's death in the PatternFall war. This event soured already strained relations between the two kingdoms. Due to both her poor reputation at home and fears for her security, Nayda is rarely seen in public. She prefers to attend social functions in Amber, which his hardly surprising given the relatively austere conditions in Begman. Though Queen Kristina does her best to keep up appearances, the predominating presence of the military at all events shows that times have changed. Despite her unpopularity, Nayda is respected as a capable if harsh administrator. Even her enemies admit that without Nayda's influence it is likely Begma would have gone the way of Caladon and become a wasteland. Her instinctive dislike of Logrus Masters and insistence on conventional counter-guerilla methods has meant that though Begma has suffered, she remains an important player in the Golden Circle and has the potential to become great again. |
