Ajaw(Character)

Ajaw is the reason behind the sudden surge of new technology on Hiija.

He grew up on the mainland in a city bustling with steam machines and contraptions. Ajaw, as a young orphan, was forced into apprenticeship as a child (with a master, who became like a father to him?) and was soon showing an extraordinary understanding of the machines he worked with, and later, he even took to inventing new, more effective machines himself. This resulted in his machines catching the attention of the city "overlord", who was habouring a desire to conquer even more of the mainland for it's resources.

Ajaw and his master received a request from the "overlord" to develop destructive weaponry for the betterment and expansion of their nation.

They tried to decline, but were overpowered by the city's henchmen, resulting in the death of Ajaws master. Ajaw himself was captured and forced to work on weapon development. Having nothing to lose and his work gnawing at his conscience constantly, he devised an escape plan using his utilizing his knowledge of the city's machinery. He succeeded and stole a boat from the habour, but, having no experience of seafaring, was forced to sail aimlessly for weeks, until his boat finally crashed and Ajaw washed up on the island of Hiija.

Ajaw after he arrived to Hiija
Being the isolated island that Hiija is, it was unusual to have foreigners on their land. For this reason Uxmal and the local people were both suspicious and curious about Ajaw. Once they got assured that he is no threat, they left him alone. Ajaw tried to befriend the tribe and managed in doing so as he needed a way to survive. He gained the trust of Uxmal who taught him the ways of her people even if Ajaw didn't particularly believe in their gods. He was shown the beetle statues and upon seeing them, Ajaw was astonished to discover their technological potential as they exerted large amounts of energy.

With his flair for mechanical engineering, he built a first machine powered by one of the statues. The people were skeptical at first, but once they saw how useful the machine was they immediately asked Ajaw to make more. While he was happy he could go back and do what his old job had him to do, Uxmal was outraged by the fact that he would even think of it. Ajaw argued that the potential is amazing and that it would make their lives easier. Normally Uxmal would perform sacrifices in dire times to ask for rain from the gods for their crops or the like, but Ajaw showed the people that sacrifices won't be needed anymore to please the gods as their lives can already be improved by his machines. The people eventually followed him and revered him as a hero as they didn't need to worry about their crops dying from the lack of rain.

Uxmal was no longer their leader and she retreated to her home to stay alone, angered at both Ajaw and the people.

After Kilijo's parents died, Ajaw felt terribly sorry for her and took care of her (Uxmal obviously resented him even more after the incident, blaming him for what happened).

Over the years however, he grew tired of constantly helping the people of the village and his efforts not being appreciated. He was also let down for the people because they only just kept taking advantage of him. Once Kiiljo also left him in order to go and take care of her grandmother, he got bitter and build robot Kiiljo because now he considers the machines and robots to be his only friends.