Characters / Katmandu Leahtrah And Thorins Era

Characters from Leahtrah and Thorin's era.

Leah and Thorin

Tropes associated with all of them:

• Badass Family: Well, at least Thorin and Leah in her younger years were this out of necessity.
• Heroic Lineage: Leah and her children are descendants of Liska Mitsel-eman, a very powerful female warchief from the Highland tribe who ruled the White River area of the Plains region two centuries ago, and she and her family are very proudful of that fact.

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Leahtrah "Leah" Middlesmith-Leonius

Age: 23 (at the beginning of the story), about 41 (epilogue episode)
Height: 5 ft. 5 in./1.65 cm
Date of Birth: A.K. 1927
Race: Velite (Abyssinian)

The main character in the story, and Thorin Leonius's wife, although she is not exactly the protagonist per se. She is a Velite woman working as a healer whose vehicle was attacked by a Hoplite squad led by Thorin when trying to capture a Velite magician bent on causing discord on both sides. She is forced to travel with Thorin when the latter chains himself to her in an attempt to return to neutral territory. After several adventures, Leah falls in love with the one who was previously her enemy, and after several adventures, she marries Thorin, with whom she has three children, to whom, along with her husband, she tells the adventures of her distant ancestor Liska.

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• Action Girl: Not much like Liska, her ancestor, but she knows how to defend herself in a pinch, as she tried to kill Thorin at first using a knife.
• All Women Are Lustful: Just like her ancestor, she enjoys having sex quite a bit, and part of the reason she joined that ambushed caravan in the first place was to having a relationship with a man named Victor, but she ended with Thorin instead.
• Bitch Slap: She slaps Thorin when he complains about the pain caused by her when suturing his head wounds.
• Decoy Protagonist: Make no mistake, Leah is just a living Framing Device in order to tell Liska's life to her husband, her children, and the readers out-universe, as the latter is the true star of the plot.
• Defiled Forever: Discussed by her after having sex with Thorin, as the latter knew that she had a loved one in her hometown, and it was him who laments about being the one who had stolen her virginity, not the other way around.
• Deuteragonist: Since she is Liska's descendant, she shares the same spotlight with her, as she is the one telling the story of her life.
• Expy:
  • Design-wise, she resembles a lot like Eda Felna, the mother of Erma Felna, from Albedo: Erma Felna EDF, including same hair color, species, and certain traits on her personality, except that, unlike Eda, she is not afraid on getting her hands dirty when the need arises.
  • In some degree, her role in the story is pretty similar to Caroline Ingalls, Laura's mother, from Little House on the Prairie, as both being smart brunettes and having similar roles, with two main differences: Leah is the Deuteragonist of the story here, compared with Caroline, which was a secondary character, compared with her own daughter Laura. Also, and in a very ironic twist, while Caroline is quite racist against Native Americans, Leah's own ancestors, starting with Liska, are her world's equivalents from them.
  • Likewise, she is quite similar to Princess Shahrazad from the Arabian Nights, since, just like literary counterpart, Leah's role is to tell different stories to her loved ones (Thorin and their children in Katmandu and King Shahryar in the Arabic tale). The only difference here with the Arabian Nights is that, while Shahrazad does this in order to save herself from being executed by the king, Leah does just to both kill time and to please her family, and also as part of family tradition in order to keep the story of Liska alive among her descendants.
• Foreshadowing: One of ther side-stories published in the Katmandu Annual #2 heavily foreshadows her future role as a museum curator in the Distant Finale when she talks with Thorin about her current research about the life of Liska. Keep in mind that, until that point, most of her stories about her ancestor were reserved only to people closest to Leah, like her children or relatives, at least until the last arc, when it turns out there's more people outside her family that knows about Liska's life, like Master Cheddar and Valentine, Loanzah's boyfriend.
• Hair Color Dissonance: Officially, Leah's fur is brown, but in the comic itself, and barring issues 8 and 26, hers is depicted with with light color instead. This is very likely intentional, as by Word of God, drawing dark-furred characters was very time-consuming at the time and they need to cheat a bit with her in order to avoid schedule delays.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Mentioned much later in the story, when Leah explains that her second litter are much bigger than her last one, because her husband, Thorin, is a Hoplite lion much taller than her.
• Interspecies Romance: Much of the crux of the story is her relation with Thorin, a Hoplite lion, while Leah herself is a Velite.
• Lemony Narrator: A given, considering there's many times she stops her stories in order to explain both her family and the readers out-universe about some aspects from the whole setting, just to return again to past time.
• Limited Wardrobe: From all the characters in the story, Leah almost always wears the same clothes, with some exceptions, especially when she is naked. See below for the reason.
• Ms. Fanservice: Just like her ancestor, Leah is quite a beauty that can shock many males, beginning with Thorin, of course. Unlike Liska, however, Leah is aware of her natural beauty and she exploit it as much as she can.
• Only-Child Syndrome: Downplayed. Unlike Thorin, who had many brothers, Leah is the only child in her family. This is a quite stark contrast with her ancestor, which was infamous for having too many children in her lifetime.
• Plot Hole: There's many incongruences regarding her ancestry and her real kinship with Liska. According with her, she is the descendant from Liska and Rial's line, but in issue #12, Leah explains to a woman having problems with RH-incompatibility that Panka is related with her bloodline, despite not being from the Mitsel-eman clan. To complicate matters ever further, Leah also explained that her family is from the same region and she is also related with that woman with RH-incompatibility problems, which brings another bigger problem that probably happened after the death of Liska and the rest of the characters from her era and probably caused a genetic bottleneck in the region. This also means that Leah is a descendant from either Liska & Rial's line, Liska & Pyndan's one^note Which is very likely, since it's heavily implied that both Chepá and Valora also inherited Pyndan's RH problems that affected him, his clan and Liska., Shaygin & Liska (via Markree), Panka & Garreth's, or any combination of these done by their future descendants. At the end of the story, her claims about being descendant from Liska and Rial went invalidated by there inconsistences.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Very downplayed. In some issues, especially the ones drawn by Shawntae Howard, she looks like Liska, except with a very different hair and fur color, and that without going with the fact she is likely an Abyssinian, while Liska was a tabby, through in later issues, the resemblance is rather reduced thanks to Art Evolution.
• Tragic Keepsake: There's a good reason why she almost always wears the same clothes everyday at everytime. That ceremonial outfit she normally wears belonged to Liska, which was a gift from Kress at issue 25, a fact revealed in the Distant Finale. Ironically enough, Liska herself only used that dress in that issue exclusively.
• You All Share My Story: The entire story of the comic is told from her point of view, including the ones involving Liska, her distant ancestor.

Major Thorin Leonius

Age: 27 (at the beginning of the story), about 45 (final arc)
Height: 6 ft. 7 in./2.01 cm
Date of Birth: A.K. 1923
Race: Hoplite (Lion)

Leahtrah's mate. He is a Hoplite lion officer, who met Leah in the worst of the circunstances, as he tried to kill her at first (see Leah's profile above), but he fell in love with her, and after being captured by his own people when trying to get some food for both inside a Hoplite military base, he is rescued by Leah, and later on, both got married and has children with her. After the third issue onwards, his role in the story gets reduced to mostly hearing his wife's tales about Liska, through he later on gets some help from Liska's spirit during a mission dealing with heavily armed mercenaries in the same place when Liska's mate Rial died.

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• Interspecies Romance: Between he, a Hoplite lion and a Velite cat.
• Out of Focus: He doesn't appear, nor is mentioned in the epilogue episode at all. He also doesn't appear in certain issues when Leah or her children are the protagonists instead.
• Progressively Prettier: In the first issue, Thorin looked and behaved like an unlikable, murderous feline thug. Starting with the second issue onwards, at least the ones drawn by Terrie Smith and Shawntae Howard, he now looks like a very pretty boy, with a more prettier face and his lion fangs are much smaller than in previous issues.
• Satellite Character: After the end of the "Velites & Hoplites" sub-arc, his role in the story is reduced to mostly hearing his wife's tales about Liska and on taking care of their children, through he has the chance to having some spotlight again when Lisks's spirit helps him during a mission.
• Species Surname: His last name is Leonius, and he is a lion.

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Their children

Leah and Thorin's children (Loanzah, Milpul, Kemal, Panka and Thea)

Age: 5 (at issue 5, Loanzah, Milpul, Kemal), 18 (final arc)
Height: 4 feet (1.22 cm, Loanzah, Milpul, Kemal at 5)
Date of Birth: A.K. 1950 (Loanzah, Milpul, Kemal), about A.K. 1955 (second litter)
Race: Hybrids

The Leonius-Middlesmith's children from their first litter. These three kittens, later adults, along with their father Thorin, are the audience of their mother Leah for her tales she tells about Liska, their direct ancestor.

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Tropes shared with all the children:

• Audience Surrogate: Their role is basically this, as they're also doing more or less the same questions the readers are doing regarding how the plot is going on, up to including the intented reactions regarding some shocking plot twists, like the death of Rial.
• Mix-and-Match Critters: Since their mother is a Velite cat and their father a Hoplite lion, they are basically feline hybrids that shares some of the features from their parents' respective species.

Loanzah Leonius

The only female of the triplet trio and the senior in terms of her relationship with her other male brothers. Of all of them, she really admires her ancestor Liska, to the grade she wants to be like her, something she manages to do at adult age, as she became an air force pilot.

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• Age-Inappropriate Dress:
  • At the end of "The Hunt" sub-arc, Loanzah joins her mother Leah when she retakes her older Secret Identity as "Madame Liana", using the name "Madame Loanna" and also using the same skimpy suit her mother wears. It should be noted she was seven years old at that point.
  • During the "The Quest for Magic" sub-arc, Loanzah wears the same swimwear as the rest of her male brothers, not wearing anything covering her chest. To be fair, her chest was covered with a tuff of fur at the time, so we don't see her nipples or anything naughty on her.
• Alliterative Name: Loanzah Leonius, a feature shared with her mother, due to the latter adopting her mate's surname.
• Berserk Button:
  • Her biggest button is her size, as she hates being called small, and she will pick a fight with whoever dares to bully her on her on regard of her small stature.
  • Anyone bullying her brothers will also face the wrath of her fists as well.
• Deuteragonist: Somewhat. While she and her brothers shares the same spotlight together with her mother and their ancestor Liska, most of the narrative spins along on her, at least until the last two issues, since she is the one more willing to follow both her father Thorin and also Liska's footsteps. This is enforced by the fact her name begins with "L", just like her mother and her legendary ancestor.
• Expy: In terms of roles, she is pretty similar to Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie, as both have personal problems with their height, both being closer to their parents, and both protecting their slibings from bullies and being relative tomboys. The only main difference, however, is that, while Laura doesn't consider herself pretty, Loanzah doesn't like being pretty; likewise, compared with Laura, the main protagonist of the show, Loanzah is a secondary character in the whole narrative, as the main protagonists are her mother and her ancestor, Liska.
• Generation Xerox: Loanzah is basically Liska as a kid, hair color and tomboyish personality included, except she is a lion-cat hybrid; she also has some elements of Rial's personality as well.
• Hair Color Dissonance: Just like her mother, her fur is supposed to had a gray tone with white tuffs, and darker patches in her tail and arms, while having blonde hair like Liska and her father Thorin, but, excluding her black patches, the rest of her fur is depicted as white in order to save money and time on inking her.
• She Is All Grown Up: In the latter issues, all of them are now college-age adults; Loanzah gets married later on at the very end of the story, and in one side-story, it's stated she later became an air force pilot.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Just like Liska, she is girl who loves to do boy-related stuff, and she is not above on getting involved in fights, but she is also very feminine as well.

Leah's Parents

Jerush Middlesmith

Age: 57
Height: 5 ft. 10 in./1.78 cm
Date of Birth: A.K. 1903
Race: Velite (Maine Coon)

Leahtrah's father and Mahri's husband. He is a healer as is his daughter, just as his ancestors were before him. He is alo notorious for having a very elaborated backstory... for a character which only appears once in the whole story. Also notorious for having a dislike for Hoplites like Leah's husband Thorin.

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• All There in the Manual: His entire backstory is explained in the Katmandu Handbook, as it was never explained in the comic since he only appears on it once.
• Fantastic Racism: Also overlapping with Racist Grandpa, as he hates Hoplites, including his daughter Leah's husband Thorin, partly out of principle, due to his job as a healer and partly because of the long-enduring grudges against Hoplites caused by the war.
• One-Shot Character: For a character with such elaborated backstory, he only appears in the first issue of the When Warriors Die sub-arc, and he never appears again, along with his wife Mahri. We have to assume he could had passed away at the end of the story due to old age, as he was 57 when Leah married with Thorin and 62 when the latter went to fight against the White River mercenaries.

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Mahri Middlesmith (neé Kentyn)

Age: 52
Height: 5 ft. 4 in./1.63 cm
Date of Birth: A.K. 1908
Race: Velite (Brown tabby cat)

Leahtrah's mother and Jerush's wife. A housewife who was, before marrying with Jerush, was a temple dancer who danced in honor for the Goddess, something she learnt from her mother when she was a teen, when she then met Jerush and fell on love, through she didn't married with him until she was over 18. Just like her husband, none of her backstory is relevant for the plot at all, as she only appears in the same issue like Jerush^note Outside the fact Leah learnt exotic dancing from her, which was useful during the Velites and Hoplites sub-arc. the through unlike him, she doesn't harbor any hate against Thorin.

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• All There in the Manual: Her entire backstory is explained in the Katmandu Handbook, as it was never explained in the comic since she only appears on it once.
• One-Shot Character: For a character with such elaborated backstory, she only appears in the first issue of the When Warriors Die sub-arc, and he never appears again, along with his wife Mahri. We have to assume that, just like her husband, she could had passed away at the end of the story due to old age, as she was 52 when Leah married with Thorin and 57 when the latter went to fight against the White River mercenaries.

Thorin's Family

Other Characters