Tezca Rai

Overview

Tezca is a clandestine operative specializing in assassinations, asset recovery and arrests. When the the EDF brass wants something done quietly and effectively, Tezca is the first name that comes to mind.

Like her brother, Aztec, she’s genetically modified. Due to being spliced with wildcat DNA, she has night vision and heightened reflexes. Unlike her brother, who likes to go loud with grenades and heavy weapons, Tezca prefers knives, sniper rifles, cloaking technology and other means of being unseen and unheard.

Tezca went through a great deal of trauma in her life, not only from her childhood, but also seeing gruesome scenes in the narcotics squad. She has a cybernetic arm after losing a limb in active duty. As a result, she’s built up a lot of defense mechanisms that she uses to keep people at a distance.

Though she can be cold and sarcastic, she has a fun and silly side that shines through.

Origin

Tezca and her brother, Aztec, grew up poor on Earth in an area referred to as “Greater South America,” which encompasses Mexico all the way to Argentina. When the twins’ ailing mother died, the two lied about their age to join the military and were separated.

Tezca was stationed on Venus, a mostly female planet governed by a constitutional monarchy. The drug trade was rampant on Venus, a planet full of all sorts of gases utilized in fragrances, drugs and inhalants, and Tezca was assigned to the narcotics unit before being drafted into EDF Black Ops.

Tezca’s Playlist

  1. End Space VR for the Oculus Quest REVIEW+GAMEPLAY: Beautiful & Immersive Space Shooter
  2. Half-Life: Alyx Gameplay Video 1
  3. This Gunman VR Game is WAY TOO REALISTIC
  4. Switchback VR PSVR 2 Gameplay: You Blink… You Die!!
  5. Attacking a Star Destroyer in VR – Star Wars: Squadrons Cinematic Gameplay
  6. Battle Talent | Slicing Goblins In Half Has Never Felt So Good

Favorite Foods

In Draconis, the crew rotates cooking duties. Not particularly gifted or interested in cooking, Tezca’s taste is simple and premade foods.

  • Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
  • Tuna Salad
  • Fish Sticks
  • Oatmeal
  • Flank Steak
  • Frozen Lasagna

Author’s Note

Tezca is definitely a tomboy kind of a character. She’s based a lot on a real life ex-girlfriend I had, but she has several media influences as well: Colette from Ratatouille, Faye from Cowboy Bebop, Temari from Naruto, Juri from Street Fighter to name a few. Louise from Bob’s Burgers. Emily Blunt’s character in Sicario. Revy from Black Lagoon.

As I mentioned in Aztec’s note, Tezca and Aztec were conceptualized as a pair, and the initial reference point for that was Raijin and Fujin from Final Fantasy 8, though they definitely evolved a lot since then. In FF8, Raijin is a sweet loudmouth and Fujin is a sharp mute; what remains from that dynamic in Draconis is probably that Aztec is sweet and Tezca is sharp.

I think more than anyone else, when this book gets out into the hands of people, Tezca is going to be a fan favorite, because she’s so funny, because she’s kind of unhinged, because she’s so lovable even though she’s so messed up. She has this interesting juxtaposition between a super hard professional assassin who’s seen some of the worst things a person can see, and then this almost childlike fun side to her that I think makes her a really interesting and compelling character to watch.

Unlike Aztec, Tezca didn’t respond to their challenging childhood by becoming more caring and empathetic. She became cold and developed the kind of hypervigilance and hyper-independence you tend to see in people with abandonment trauma. She doesn’t have a lot of close connections and doesn’t let people in close, she tends to be avoidant and to deflect any serious feelings with defensiveness, sarcasm or escapism.