Kanaya Maryam

Kanaya Maryam, also known by her Trollian handle, is one of the Hivebent trolls. Her associated zodiac sign is Virgo (♍), just like Andrew Hussie. Her left horn curves into a hook, emulating the tail of her astrological symbol when viewed from the front. She capitalizes the first letter of every word, and writes in jade green.

Her name comes from the Sanskrit counterpart of Virgo, which is 'Kanya'; and 'Maryam' is the Arabic name for 'Mary', as in the Virgin Mary.

She was the last member of the Red Team to enter The Medium.

Biography
Her appearance is similar to that of the other trolls in that she possesses gray skin, black hair, uniquely shaped horns, pointed teeth, and her main outfit consists of a top with her associated astrological symbol in her blood color. Only two of her teeth are protruding, giving Kanaya a vampire-like appearance. The shape of her hair may or may not be intentionally reminiscent of a stereotypical vampire's cape. Her hair is also somewhat similar to John Egbert's.

Kanaya seems to be helpful, as perhaps fits with her trolltag ("auxiliatrix" in Latin means "a helpful woman"). Kanaya contacts Rose Lalonde on her birthday and states that she is on an entirely different timeline than the kids. However, she also says that they have spoken just minutes ago from her (GA's) point of view. Kanaya asks to be Rose's friend, believing that they were "supposed to." Rose accepts, albeit in a somewhat confused manner. She admits that their plan to troll Rose and her friends wasn't thought all the way through, and appears to be getting tips from Rose.

Hivebent
Kanaya lives in an oasis in a desert, beside a volcano and a red Frog Temple. Her oasis is nearly identical to the island where Jade lives. According to her, her hive originated from The Medium.

She shares other similarities with Jade: both use considerably more advanced weapons for their Strife specibi than others and both use a wardrobifier. She also possesses a Lunchtop like Jade's, except instead of Squiddles, it has cuttlefish on it. They both have a distinct enthusiasm towards botany and had dreams that take place in the Medium before playing Sburb/Sgrub. Kanaya's blood is even jade green. She has an, something rare among the utilitarian-minded troll race. As such, she partakes in fashion design and hive decoration. She also appears to share Jade's gnostic abilities, due to a pre-existing awareness of Skaia. Kanaya and Jade are also both heroes of space, and the assigned frog breeders of their respective session.

She and Rose also share a taste in literature: both have a preference for stories featuring the unusual and monstrous. Rose bears an affinity for unfathomable eldritch horrors, while Kanaya indulges in sensuous tales of and secret passion, possibly the troll equivalent of Earth's romantic vampire novels.

Kanaya specifically requested to be the final member of the Red Team to connect to Sgrub. As such, she is Vriska Serket's server player. She seems to have requested this position specifically to stay close to Vriska, due to their moirallegiance and potential matespritship. Eventually she became Equius' client, connecting the Red Team with the Blue Team.

Kanaya is the Sylph of Space and resided in the Land of Rays and Frogs, home to the Trolls' Forge.

Post-Hivebent
After the trolls settled on an asteroid in the Veil, she used her chainsaw to amputate Tavros Nitram's legs, allowing them to be replaced by functional robot legs created by Equius.

Later she found the Auxiliatrix Key deep inside the asteroid, which unlocked the card she kept the Matriorb in. This confused her, because she had given up hope to rebuild the Troll's race, having been denied access to their new universe. She then quickly realised that she was supposed to hatch the new Mother Grub inside the core of the asteroid.

She tells Jade about her duty to breed frogs and create the Genesis Frog. Unfortunately, she is interrupted by Eridan, who proceeds to KO Sollux and kill Feferi. Eridan destroys the matriorb, enraging Kanaya, who attacks. She is shot in the stomach by Eridan with his white science wand, and he absconds further into the lab. This may be making reference to the fact that the sign Virgo rules a person's stomach. Karkat attempts to revive her with a kiss, but since her dream self was already slain by Jack, it does not work.

Later, when Terezi returns to the computer area her corpse is missing and Feferi has HS 5336 (fang marks)(matching Kanaya's) on her neck along with what appears to be jade green lipstick or blood, even though her corpse was nowhere near Kanaya's. As Nepeta explores the vents, while hiding from Gamzee, she discovers a room with two disabled transportalizer pads and a trail of jade blood between them. One of the pads seem to have been cut apart. Terezi wakes up at some point boasting a similar bite mark, considerately bandaged. How very helpful.

Undead Kanaya finally shows up in HS 5420 ([S]: 3x SHOWDOWN COMBO), with Eridan's cape covering her wound. She appears to exhibit a bright white glow from her skin, rather than the normal ashen grey skin most trolls have, and brighter yellow eyes compared to the rest of the cast. She proceeds to run up to Gamzee and kick him in the groin bone bulge. Gamzee falls off the cliff honking the whole way down. Kanaya then turns her attention to Vriska, delivering a punch to her nose to establish HS 5444 (matespritship), and Eridan, snapping his wand in half with a "DEBUNK" sound effect. She then gives Eridan a HS 5436 (similar treatment). By cutting his legs off, it could be in a way a further method of removing his power, as the sign Aquarius rules a person's legs.

Later on, she ran into Sollux, who was blinded and had his teeth knocked out. At some point she also helped Jade with frog-breeding and in dealing with her denizen, Echidna.

Kanaya also participates in the HS 5985 (5x Showdown Combo), but gets papped away by Karkat while attempting to auspitice between him and Gamzee. Afterwards, she and other remaining Trolls travel to the Green Sun, where Aradia and half-ghost Sollux, along with god tier Dave and Rose are waiting. Kanaya initially wishes to stay behind with Aradia and Sollux when they're discussing leaving on the meteor, but Rose gets her to stay by getting her to admit that she wants to finish her duty to revive the Troll race.

Later, she becomes enraged when Jane stabbed Karkat to demonstrate her life powers, then confronts Gamzee with Karkat after witnessing Gamzee beat Terezi to near death. In the ensuing melee, she witnesses Karkat stabbed apparently to death by Gamzee, promptly dismembers Gamzee, and is herself incinerated by a psionic blast originating from the Condesce.

Personality and Traits
Kanaya is a unique troll in the sense that she enjoys the rays of the Alternian sun, though whether or not this is a trait found in all Jadebloods is unknown. She is the only troll yet to have taken a liking to the art of landscaping, using her chainsaw/lipstick to saw away at the trees to create topiary outside of her hive. Kanaya is also very creative, taking a particular interest in fashion (not a standard troll attribute) and colorful patterns. She is an avid reader of horror and romance novels, and also has a fascination for Alternia's version of vampires, the rainbow drinkers, even going as far as to taste her lusus' blood (though she quickly discovered that she HS 4240 (did not enjoy its taste)). She is seen to be supportive and helpful at times, often acting as an auspistice, or mediator, for other trolls.

Kanaya is very reluctant to troll Rose, attempting to leave after typing only a few lines. As it turns out, her first trolling victim is not Rose but John, who answers Rose's computer while Rose is asleep. As a result, Kanaya gains the impression that Rose is mixed-up and unintelligent. It is later shown that Kanaya had discovered Rose's walkthrough prior to personal contact with the humans; the thorough and flourishing nature of the walkthrough causes Kanaya to idolize Rose, acting as a reasonable cause for Kanaya's wild infatuation displayed in her presence. Kanaya also has a wardrobifier like Jade, however, she uses it to change her entire outfit rather than just change the symbol on her dresses. Kanaya's Virgo sign remains plainly visible on her person regardless of outfit. Remarkably, she is the only troll who has chosen to change their clothes for the sake of fashion.

Like Rose, Kanaya has no issues with the necessity of violent bloodshed. This is made especially evident when Kanaya excises the Matriorb from within the bowels of her dead lusus, amputates Tavros' legs, and bisects Eridan. Kanaya is the type to execute decisions for the greater good regardless of their personally unsavory nature, as reflected in the Grim Auxiliatrix of her chumhandle. Further establishing her helpfulness, more than one troll has called her a meddler, and Vriska has referred to her as She frequently considers auspisticizing between her friends. However, she has explained to Rose that the ashen quadrant is not very emotionally fulfilling, and can be quite laborious to maintain, which heavily implies that the only reason she tries to auspistice between her friends is because she cares for them greatly and puts their happiness before her own.

Kanaya's personality does not appear to have changed significantly post-mortem with the exception of an even greater will to solve problems with her chainsaw. (e.g. Eridan and, if she had her way, Gamzee) During Aradia's trip through the Dream Bubbles, Jade makes reference to a future conversation where Kanaya reveals her undead nature to her, and then give her fashion advice, strongly suggesting that there have not been any notable personality alterations accompanying her Rainbow Drinker state.


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 * - HS 5532

Vriska
Kanaya has had unrequited flushed feelings for Vriska in the past, though she denied it, acting as Vriska's moirail. Although, it implies otherwise, seeing as Kanaya often gets jealous when Vriska is with anyone but her. This further leaves the message that Kanaya wanted a flushed relationship with Vriska, but would never admit to it. Learning of Vriska's romantic feelings for Tavros was a great shock for her. She was put in the position to auspisticize Tavros and Vriska; however, her feelings presumably interfered with her mediation of the relationship. Not long after entering the Medium, she mentioned to Karkat that she was planning to abandon her on Vriska. In the Veil, Kanaya acts very terse towards Vriska, refusing to talk to her, evidently still bitter over her heartbreak. After displaying incredible skill and brutality in dealing with Vriska, Gamzee and Eridan's 3X Showdown, Vriska sees Kanaya in a new light and had a momentary infatuation with her. Evidently, Vriska was surprised and impressed by the punch that the other female had delivered. Any possible returning feelings between the two were soon made irrelevant by Vriska's death.

Karkat
Karkat and Kanaya are on very good terms, as Karkat is far less crabby with her than any other player. Kanaya has an unspoken respect for him, and Karkat claims that she was his really good friend. Recently, he has claimed that she was his when talking to John. However, Karkat expressed that he does not feel as close to Kanaya after their 3 year trip through The Furthest Ring, largely because Kanaya spends most of her time with Rose.

Rose
Kanaya originally learned about Rose when she read her walkthrough, leading her to idolize. However, her first conversation with her was actually with John (who was at Rose's computer), thus leading her to have misconceptions about her. Kanaya becomes attached to Rose during her trolling time, and learns to emulate Rose's sarcastic behavior. She sometimes worries about Rose and tries to discourage her risky plans at every opportunity she can. At one point Rose displayed gratitude for this, leading Kanaya to say that she did not want to. This implies she did not want to act as a moirail to Rose the way she did with Vriska. Meenah later pried as to whether she and Rose were and got an answer, accompanied by laughter, of. During the 3 year journey to the new session she and Rose grew to become matesprits, and despite being against Rose's new drinking problem she stays with her.

Eridan
Kanaya, being an auxiliatrix, has been turned to more than once in order to help relationships in the past. Kanaya is referred to as by Eridan when he solicited her to auspisticize between him and Vriska, due to their apparently turbulent relationship.

Kanaya considered Eridan a friend and Eridan says he'd never kill her when he kills all the, but ironically Kanaya is actually the only land-dweller Eridan kills over the course of the story. After becoming a rainbow drinker, Kanaya kills Eridan for what he did to her, Feferi, and Sollux.

Jade
Shortly before her death, Kanaya became friends with Jade, as they share very similar lives. She continued this friendship after becoming a rainbow drinker, as they worked together with Karkat to create Jade's Genesis Frog.

Porrim
During the second year of the time spent on the meteor, Kanaya expresses admiration of Porrim, and states that she finds her Dancestor intimidating. Since this point, however, the two appear to have become friends. Porrim has taught Kanaya how to turn her rainbow drinker glow on and off, among other things. They have the most comfortable relationship of any troll dancestors, as Terezi feels vastly overshadowed by Latula, Karkat despises Kankri, and Meenah, while fond of Feferi, can't help but instinctively try to kill her on sight.

Lusus/Kernelsprite
Kanaya's Lusus is a virgin Mother Grub that abdicated the role of progenitor and took on the role of a Lusus, an act which, according to Kanaya, would doom it to an early death. It, and presumably all Mother Grubs, resembles a large, flying moth-like creature. It has a skull-like face, sultry lips, and two horns, one of them bent like Kanaya's. Her body is divided into six sections by five distinct white lines. The second, third and fourth sections of the Mothergrub's body give way to one pair of diminutive insectoid legs each, creating a total of six legs. The Virgin Mothergrub's design is possibly based on the Grammia virgo, or Virgin Tiger Moth. The Mother Grub died of natural causes. Kanaya rejects the idea that the Mobius Double Reacharound Virus is responsible for the deaths of the Lusus, believing it instead to be a consequence of playing Sgrub. Trolls can only be selected and raised by a virgin Mother Grub if they have jade green blood, such as Kanaya. This occurrence is so rare that it apparently eludes documented precedent, which, considering how old Alternian civilization is, seems pretty rare. It was extremely helpful for Kanaya when it was alive, defending her from the desert threats surrounding her. We also know that Kanaya had agreed to provide the Mother Grub with progeny after its death, and she extracted and captchalogued the Mother Grub's Matriorb for this purpose. The fact that her lusus was a "virgin mother" may also foreshadow her rise from the dead.

Trivia

 * Kanaya has several connections to the Twilight series, such as sharing zodiac symbols with Bella Swan and being the troll equivalent of a vampire. Rather than sparkling, though, she glows like a lightbulb.
 * Ironically, she is the only troll to withstand sunlight, which is considered deadly for "Earth vampires".
 * She also bears a resemblance to Alice Cullen, one of the vampires in the series.
 * Kanaya's makeupkind is based on that of the Hysterical Dame from Problem Sleuth, who uses the same weapon.
 * Kanaya shares both Andrew Hussie's aspect (space) and his zodiac symbol (Virgo).
 * Kanaya is commonly associated with the number six: Virgo is the sixth astrological symbol, she is the sixth player on the red team, her lusus has six legs and six body segments, she has been shown to wear six different outfits outside her default, and the phrase was mentioned a total of six times in her introduction. Space, her associated element, is a spiral composed of six distinct arms.
 * Kanaya's  is probably a reference to the fact that Problem Sleuth becomes ridiculously fast when using his candy corn vampire pumpkin. Also, Twilight vampires display superhuman speed.
 * Kanaya's pre-scratch ancestor, Porrim, shares Kanaya's habit of being the in certain forms of romance. However, unlike Porrim, Kanaya's 'promiscuity' is limited to the ashen quadrant.
 * "Kanaya" was suggested by Nebilim. "Maryam" was suggested by goggles8.
 * Investigation of Kanaya's character leads to various mythological and religious motifs, mostly relating to wind, justice (justice in the form of sociopolitical order, not to be confused with Terezi's blind "Fortuna/Tyche"), and the sun: Amun was the Ancient Egyptian god of wind, justice, and sun, after fusing with Ra to form Ra-Amun. The name "Mary" is derived from the Hebrew "Miryam", which is in turn derived from "Myr-Amun", Ancient Egyptian for "beloved of Amun". The title "sylph" can be traced to mythological creatures of the same name, who were considered air elementals prevented from ascending to the afterlife due to their trifling bitterness.
 * Kanaya inherited the Sylph class from Aranea Serket and her Space aspect from her dancestor Porrim. This is reflected in the post scratch universe, where the Dolorosa was Mindfang's lover and slave for a long while. In the pre-scratch universe, Meenah found out that Aranea was in a relationship with Porrim for the length of a standard earth year, and are still quite good friends. Vriska Serket and Kanaya's relationship however turned into a clash between pale feelings Kanaya knew Vriska needed, and the red feelings that Kanaya felt. Vriska later developed red feelings for Kanaya, but died before anything could come of them.
 * Kanaya once typed this face . However, both Terezi and Latula have done so on multiple occasions.
 * Kanaya is the only troll who likes the sunlight, and also has had flushed feelings for two Light players. This may also be related to the fact that her lusus resembles a moth.
 * Kanaya confirms the name of the group associated with her blood caste to be in part 3 of Openbound. The plural is.
 * Kanaya's use of a chainsaw may be derived from the predecessor of the modern chainsaw, a chain-driven tool desgined to aid in childbirth, referencing her blood caste's role in attending to the mother grub.
 * Kanaya seems to share many similar scenes with Rose.
 * Kanaya is depicted, with Gamzee, on the "XI: Strength" card in the Homestuck tarot card deck. She can also be seen with the rest of the red team on the "King of Swords" card, and with most of the pre-act six cast on the "Five of Wands" card.
 * Her appearance on the Strength card is a reference to her generally patient, compassionate character, qualities associated with the card.
 * The two main colors of Kanaya's original outfit, red and green, are often associated with Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ to the Virgin Mary, reflecting Kanaya's name and symbol as well as her ancestor's status as a Mary figure.
 * Her last name, Maryam, could also be a reference to the Merriam Webster, which explains her wide range of vocabulary.
 * If true, her feelings for Vriska are possibly part of a very subtle pun.

Канайя Марьям