Name: Nylla, like (Va)nilla. No last name, duh

Age: ok get ready... 1,000+, BUT, BUT!!! Mentally like a PTSD ridden 17 year old :)

Height: ok, get ready... 6'0" :) Raph loves a tall queen. (he's 5'4" in my mind okay let me have this short king)

Species: Angel 🫨

Appearance:

Important Features: Ugh she's so pretty. Anyway- long, LONG black hair in box braids (Picrew didn't have the option but you get the idea, it's voluminous). She can tie them up or have them whipping around, whatever she wants. Sharp, bright blue eyes, dark skin, wide nose, full lips. Big angel wings ofc. STRONG BODY!! She's got broad shoulders and MUSCULAR arms!! This is important to me!!

Personality: Solemn, patient, strong-willed, protective, deeply caring (she cares so much), passionate

Relationships
Raph - Sees bits of herself in Raph and in his passion to protect, the first person in a long time to challenge her and get her to open up— uh oh, what are these feelings??
Leo - she sees much of his father in him, is proud of his rise to leadership
Mikey - Cares for him in an almost-mom way, sees how he wants to be the 'fixer' of the family but is suffering from a lack of acknowledgment
Donnie - admires his intellect, is worried that he leaves his heart too unguarded
Splinter - best friend and also weirdly a father figure to her, they chat over tea every day 💅
Casey - Raph's twin, in a bad way. Please stop encouraging him
April - Doesn't dislike, but doesn't connect to very much
Shredder - Disappointed, despises, gets a little shaken up by several times
Karai - Too far gone, doesn't consider part of the family to protect
Omorfiá - Oh dear, a human disaster. Leo, get away from her.
Grace - Approves, thinks shes very sweet, becomes a mother-like figure to
Bláthanna - Oh no another human disaster— Mikey get away from her.

Abilities:
Flight (duh)
Invisibility
Minor wound healing

Creation Backstory:
I... don't remember exactly how I came up with Nylla. I guess the first two are more special to me :) (jk jk)... tbh I just wanted to make two characters to pair with Raph and Mikey, partly for online RP and partly to complete the set... this may be why these two feel a bit different to me. I'm not even sure how old I was when I made them, I might have been 14-15...

She was, once again, inspired by a single picture, a Valkyrie type fan art. Originally this was an angel character wearing armor and with blonde hair. I held on to the blonde hair for a bit before thinking... "Why would she have blonde hair?? She's not wearing wigs or getting it done??" So I changed that to braids, and that has remained fairly consistent. As with most of my characters, once I found a Picrew that could capture my mental picture, Nylla came together visually through that.

Nylla went through a few shifts in clothing. At first I kept her in her inspiring-image outfit of some sort of chest-plate armor. Then I kind of figured that wouldn't work in her past or present, so I changed it to a kimono for missions and a sort of modern-japan styled outfit for downtimes. Later on I was kind of never using the downtime clothing so I narrowed it down to one outfit: a white and black keikogi and black jika-tabi (yeah... I do my research)

Another change was she used to have a sword that was only sharp, or something stupid like that, in her hands (mjolnir much?). I ended up dropping that too.

She started as a MAJOR pick-me. Like, wow, it was bad. It might still be bad. I'm trying to tone it down. But she's always been a protective figure and ingrained in the Hamato history since the beginning. And I mean the BEGINNING. But the mix of her backstory and wanting to be accepted in the present family resulted in some... bad moments. Horribly cringy. It's a hard balance. I kind of just had to chill her out and work out the flaws in her personality (and also... grow up a bit myself, I was probably projecting).

Now I would say... Nylla is still one of the toughest and arguably more complex characters to write, with her apprehension to open up emotionally due to past pains, but also her desire to have close connections because she broke the "angel rules" and had close connections in the first place. But she is also incredibly fun, a badass, and is a vehicle for emotional maturity and themes of motherhood and the trials and different forms of love and how grief can change you throughout your life, and what that could look like if you've loved for 1,000 years...

Sorry, I started rambling. I kinda tapped into my older sibling/parentification energy writing her :,)

Nylla can fly. Of course, she's an angel. She can also turn invisible. I felt like that would be interesting and also kind of make sense, since angels aren't supposed to be seen, but they stick out pretty obviously. So, invisibility :) Technically, it's just them shifting into a different light spectrum than the human eye can see, if you wanna know the fictional science. Healing, well... shes an angel, and a protector, she has to bring something to the table. It does have its limitations. She can only heal surface wounds of minor to medium size, it's gonna scar, and it takes her energy to do it so she has a limit to what she can heal in a day. She cant heal illnesses or terminal sickness either.

Developing most characters of mine kind of goes with the thought process "okay, REALISTICALLY, how would this affect their appearance/personality". And seeing some online theories regarding the MCU's Falcon and his INSANE core strength to be able to fly... I came to the logical conclusion that Nylla is hella jacked :) and thus came to the even more logical and almost canon conclusion that Raph loves buff women. You're welcome.

Because she's very involved in the daily lives of the Hamato's, she has to live close by. I always had her living in the higher levels of the Dojo tree (from the 2012 show) and that's kind of stuck ever since. I just think it's so fun... her setup is almost treehouse like, with a platform made of salvaged wood and a suspended canopy bed, and her few belongings scattered about in open boxes. Homeless aesthetic :)

I made Nylla with the intention of her eventual romance with Raph, so their relationship was already in mind with her creation, but it went through a lot of changes in dynamic. It's a tricky thing to work with an ageless character who's supposed to be romantically involved with a far younger, aging being. It's hard to not dip into the weird Edward x Bella vibes. My only excuse is... I made her when I was a preteen, so... it wasn't intended to be creepy? I just wanted her to be cool.

I think now I have it settled, and have always had this in mind, that Nylla and Raph's relationship is a slow one that never really "happens" (i.e., real big romantic gestures don't happen) until years after their initial meeting. It starts with an initial distrust and distance between them that is slowly bridged with mutual challenge of their characters and beliefs, mutual love for their family, understanding and connection over their passionate and protective natures, and a friendship that grows deeper and more intimate over time.

I really enjoyed weaving her into the Hamato storyline up to the present day. I don't remember if her story was always so heartwarming and also tragic, but it ended up becoming a really sweet found-family/outliving said family as an immortal kind of story. My favorite parts to write/think about are flashbacks to Japan and her old life there...

Spin offs:
SEVEN YEARS — I haven't written Nylla's part for Seven Years yet, but it will most likely keep close to her original story with themes and notes. A protector, forbidden/long simmering affection, etc.

A KNIGHT TO REMEMBER — This is also not written yet but I have sat on this story idea for years. I just love the idea of Nylla as a knight (maybe a nod back to her inspiring picture) escorting a haughty prince through the snowy forests... the VIBES...

If I had to describe Nylla in one word: Muscles 😳

If I had to decribe Nylla in three words: Buff mom friend