Stana Dubrivik

(a.k.a. The Keeper; Many Curses in Multiple Tongues)

A former cleaning lady with a displaced past, Stana Dubrivik became the second human Keeper of the Book of Knowledge (aka. Me. She kept me) since Salomon Calder. When considering the issue of Stana, I think it best to remind those reading these passages of the truth.
I am the Book of Knowledge, which gains knowledge through experiencing Realms. Sticking me alone in a basement with a crotchety old man who used to be cool before the sciatica kicked in wasn't my idea of retirement. There never should have been a retirement.

"Uhhuuuuh? Keep apologizing, or I dunk you in fabric softener and throw you in the dryer with my jeans." Karisma Calebdottir

"Kari, are you antagonizing the magic Book of all Books again?" Caleb Mauthisen

"Not unless threatening to do laundry with it for the Stanapologies and euphemisms is antagonism and not sweet, sweet noble justice, Dad." Karisma

Would you mind terribly, Judge Mauthisen, Sir, if I bookmarked several passages on parenting teens in these trying times? I hear discipline and boot camp are potential boons for parental sanity.

"Hush you, go on about Stana but truths and not flimsy attempts at retconning your part in the whole debacle. Honesty or nothing, Book." Caleb Mauthisen

You are magnanimous as you are bigger than me in every respect.
Upon learning of the The Mystic Truce and the myriad Realms within it, Stana took an unanticipated turn. Instead of rejoicing into magic and the task of carrying me around to experience all the things, she dedicated her life to expunging all deities, spiritual energies and Realms from existence. 
Humanity would be free by her design, and when her task was done, they would look back in thanksgiving. Or so she thought.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

A sickly but wiry person, Stana is neither physically imposing nor particularly fierce. What she lacks in imposing physical prowess she doubles in stamina.

Body Features

Nothing remarkable, which in the circles the Judge tends to enter, is fairly remarkable.

Facial Features

A rather dull complexion, mousy brown hair cut short out of convenience, dour cut to low cheekbones.

Physical quirks

Constant squinting, as if she looked at the world in a different angle, the entire Realm would change.

Special abilities

Magic of multiple Realms and various applications from nefarious to harmless. Stana became skilled at magic without cognizance or care to the magic's limitations, or the impact the balance of magic required. All of its use is justified, as all of it helps her win. While the list of Stana's spells is exhaustive, I will highlight the few she used the most. 

• Divination
• The Commandeering of True Names
• Teleportation
• Astral Travel
• Kami-Shi 
• Punishment Rituals
• Blood Magic
• Slavic Spellweaving

Apparel & Accessories

Clothing procured from mysterious sources, done in Stana's own 'style'. Usually with multiple layers and many pockets.

Specialized Equipment

Me. Book of Knowledge

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Stana Dubrivik came to Canada from countries unknown after she fled the former Yugoslavia as a child during the late 90's. The curious quotient for me is the lack of information I have on Stana's history. The woman barely talked of where she came from, aside from a few drug induced and drunken ramblings or brief moments of self-reflection. Although humanity excels in information processing and the collection of data now in the internet age, so little is known of Stana before her appearance in Salomon Calder's Vancouver home my own inefficiencies are laughable attempts.
Wherever she was from, what village she hailed as home, what countries held her when she fled the Balkans was never written down or recorded. There were no photographs nor orders, nor a name I can recognize. It's been one of my greatest attempts at deciphering silence, an attempt to record Stana's history.
What follows is all I know, as scant as it is.

• Stana was born in the former Yugoslavia.
• During the war, she lost (or was separated from) her family.
• instead of formal refugee status, Stana wandered around the globe for ten years before finding her way to Canada.
• She answered an ad for a housekeeper placed by Amma Ohene-Calder in the Georgia Slant, on behalf of Amma's father Salomon Calder.
• Stana is familiar with the layout of Kiev, London, Accra, a small Tunisian fishing village, Lyons, Marseille, Kansas City, Whistler, Banff and Vancouver enough to indicate she spent time on foot or via transit.
• Stana loves chicken tikka masala, another indication of time spent in England.

Gender Identity

Thoroughly cis-gendered female.

Sexuality

Is 'aggressive' a sexuality? Stana had multiple dalliances during the time we were acquainted, I hazard against calling any of them 'partners'. Any combination she entertained, Stana was perpetually the dominant.

Education

I will perpetually instruct and inform, it is my function. I did the best I could, while watching her receive education from outside tutors of the less altruist kind.

"What the gooses is that supposed to mean? Dad! The Book's doing it again!" Karisma Calebdottir

Magic. History. Geography. More magic. I offered Stana multiple lines of inquiry and knowledge, and she was a voracious reader not of my intended lists, but of the content she alone desired. Aside from reading my pages, Stana was educated by three tutors in the Mystic Realms. 

• Cormac of the Willow 
• Delilah Micheva 
• Magni Einridsen 

Employment

Former cleaning lady. Former server. Former grocery store clerk.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Becoming the second human to receive the Book of Knowledge and act as Keeper.

Failures & Embarrassments

Deities, demi-gods and spirits still exist. In Stana's perspective, this is the largest failure of the cosmos and of herself.
If Stana were truthful with her own failures, maybe she would become the Keeper I envisioned, when we met.

Mental Trauma

Losing her mother. Being displaced. Learning that gods and monsters exist.

Intellectual Characteristics

Shrewd but heavy handed, Stana has the penchant for acting on instinct rather than careful planned thought. While no formal education was recorded nor any indication of formal education found, she did spend an obscene amount of time reading anything in my pages she could get her hands on. The woman is voracious. 
This voracity hides a cunning which would have made her a fine academician in research fields. I almost wish time travel were possible for all but the Creatrix and Cronus, may he rest in pieces. Pieces of fetid meat at the bottom of a cesspit.  
Beside Stana someday.

Morality & Philosophy

Bankrupt. 
Perhaps this is too much of a judgement and not enough wrote information. My apologies, even sapient books have their moments. 
Stana was a firm believer in the benefit of ridding the Middling Plane of all lines of divinity. In her eyes, the stem of all human problems and systemic inequalities were centred around the worship of the divine, and only through tossing off the shackles of religious and spiritual thought would humanity (in her mind predominantly women) pick up the torch and truly thunder forth. 
The sheer force of atheistic relativism and imposed nihilism Stana introduced was a grand rebellion from the truth. Not one I expected, but one can admire her dedication to creating what she pictured as the way to true independence.

Taboos

Mistreatment of the feminine. Stana had a wicked sense of justice for women, girls and the feminine, which she weaponized in her campaign to rid the Realms of what she considered dead weight.  Divinity & Faith. A staunch atheist, Stana believed no god or deity was worthy of the human race.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

A reality without the divine, where humanity is truly itself without oversight or imposed spiritual limit. A planet of female dominance, the men had their turn.

Likes & Dislikes

Likes

• Olympe de Gouges
• Sylvia Plath
• Anne Sexton
• Jasmine Tea
• Chicken Tikka Masala
• Soccer/Football (Debate!)

Dislikes

• Deities
• Men
• Anyone who traditionally held societal control. 

Virtues & Personality perks

• Willing to listen to a Book sitting on a piled-high desk in an old man's basement. 
• Steadfastness. See: Stubbornness. 
• The positive treatment of stray cats (we delivered many bowls of milk & left nibbles out wherever we went). 

Vices & Personality flaws

• Homicidal mania focused on her chosen most hated demographic: the divine. 
• Open and flagrant misandry. 
• Stubbornness. 
• Stealing people's true names for her own use. 
• Not cleaning up after herself. 

Personality Quirks

Never brushing her hair.  Stabbing at random magical beings.

Hygiene

For a cleaning lady, Stana never... cleaned. The idea of taking care of herself was often a thing forgotten for the more important work of destroying all gods.

Social

Reign

2016 - 2017

Contacts & Relations

• Cormac of the Willow 
• Delilah Micheva 
• Salomon Calder (parted on terrible terms)
• The thousands whose True Names she stole. 

Religious Views

Atheist. Staunch atheist.

Social Aptitude

Negative charisma, with an ego the size of Kuwait. I measured.

Mannerisms

Talking down to men as if they've never heard of women's lib before.

Current Status

Making Incense

Current Location

Midgard

Species

Human

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Keeper of the Book of Knowledge

Year of Birth

1987 30 Years old

Birthplace

Croatia

Pronouns

She/Her

Sex

Female

Gender

Woman

Presentation

Feminine

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Mousy Brown

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Olive

Height

5’3”

Weight

145 lbs

Quotes & Catchphrases

"Give me your name." 

"When I found the book left stagnant in the old man's basement, I had no idea of the Mystic Realms or the Truce. I knew nothing but the fairy stories of youth. Films and animations. A few folktales. There was no God, for we killed him, left his bones for dead and moved past the societal requirement for a guiding hand. There were no gods. I would not believe in one... Imagine then, finding the Book of Knowledge. The repository of all wisdom, all information. And it was full of deities clinging for scraps. Fetid relics of collective weakness."

Char & Ash

"No, I doused two mythical morons in lighter fluid and liberated part of a British beach. My source is my own."

Char & Ash

Belief/Deity

Atheist

Known Languages

Unlike some... 

"Boooook?" Caleb Mauthisen

Unlike those to whom the life of a polyglot comes as natural as wearing matching socks... 

"Better, thank you." Caleb Mauthisen

I live to serve. 
Stana made heavy use of my translation services, to augment the languages she did speak within her limits. 

• Croatian
• English
• French