Aanya

Information

Aanya is the Queen of Duren and the daughter of Queens Annika and Neha. She inherited the throne at a young age following the deaths of her mothers.^[3]

Appearance

Aanya is a young girl with dirty blonde hair tied back in a half-finished ponytail, yellow eyes, and a tan complexion. She has rosy cheeks and wears a pale-blue open leg dress with an ornate gold pattern resembling a flower in the torso area, along with matching pants, black detached sleeves with gold accents and a flower pattern above the wrists, black boots with gold collars with a blue at the center of each. Over her dress, she wears a gold gorget with a blue gem at the base of the neck, attached to spaulders designed similarly.

Personality

Aanya is polite, respectful, and is considered extremely wise for her age, as she does not like to make rash decisions that include her kingdom, wanting to give them more in-depth thought and analysis. She is also quite witty and used to people undermining her, when Viren makes remarks about her age and how the matter is for adults she replies, "It seems I am a crown without an adult, and you’re an adult without a crown." She is also highly intelligent and well-spoken, as noted by Ahling, who states that she knows more words than his nineteen-year-old son Kasef.

Aanya is open about her thoughts and views, even if it means she stands alone in expressing them, demonstrating great courage and individuality. She also has a bit of a sassy personality, as shown with all of her replies to Viren and the other monarchs. She has also proven herself to be very helpful, for she allowed Opeli, Corvus, and Barius the baker to hide in Duren before helping them in defeating Viren. Callum has also described her as being smart and tough.^[4]

“	Aanya had to grow up quickly when she inherited the throne of Duren at an extremely young age. As a young queen, she earned many enemies, as many saw a child ruler as an easy target — but all of them underestimated her. Aanya has fiercely defended her throne and learned lessons some rulers never learn, and now would-be assassins know it's a fool's errand to challenge the Queen of Duren.	”
—Official Description^[5]

Skills and Abilities

Archery

Aanya was shown to be a highly skilled archer who can shoot multiple arrows in quick successions and can accurately shoot a target from a considerable distance.^[6]

Horse Riding

Aanya is experienced in horseback riding, which is proven when she could stay on the saddle while firing arrows simultaneously.^[6]

Persuasion

Aanya has shown herself to be great at the art of persuasion, managing to convince Ahling, Fareeda, and Florian to change their minds about attacking Xadia.^[3]

Trivia

The name "Aanya" is Hebrew and means "grace". In Persia it means "precious" and in Hindi it means "unique".^[7]
It is revealed that Aanya had faced many threats to her throne, and was not able to speak for her kingdom herself before the events of "Breaking the Seal".
Before her mothers left on their ill-fated journey into Xadia, they left their baby daughter Aanya a small diary. It was full of thoughts and dreams and wisdom that the queens had hoped to pass to Aanya as she grew. On her birthday, Duren holds a celebration for their young queen, where she gets her favorite treat: peach and pear crumble, baked from the fruit of the orchards just outside the castle. But Aanya's favorite birthday tradition is to revisit her mothers' book: their wisdom, their strength, and their guiding light as Aanya looks forward into another year as queen.^[2]