Characters / Katmandu Liska

Tropes about the main protagonist of the comic.

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Warchief (later Tribe Chief) Liska Mitsel-eman (neé Tas-so-wen before becoming a warrior)

Liska, as designed by Terrie Smith

Age: 17 (at the beginning of the story), 18 (when she mated with Rial), 55 (final arc)
Height: 5 ft. 6 in./1.68 cm
Date of Birth: A.K. 1730
Date of Death: about A.K. 1785
Race: Velite (Orange Tabby Cat, through likely a mixed breed)

"I'm a warrior. Liska, the slave, is dead... I'm a free warrior. I wouldn't give that up to tend a fire. Liska Mitsel-eman is born."

Liska is Leahtrah's distant ancestor and the comic's another Deuteragonist, through for all practical effects, she is the true star of the story. She originally was a Velite girl living in a tribe located in the Lowlands, when two warriors from the Highlands, Pyndan and Rial, kidnapped her when she was a teen and she became Rial's Sex Slave and her mate later on. Originally discriminated by the other women of the Highlands due to her condition as a slave, thorough not by the males, weirdly enough, she earns her freedom and became a warrior when a Hoplite tribe raided her village, and killed many of the invaders with her own hands. She originally had a brother, named Markree, who later managed to reunite with him again.

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• Absurdly Youthful Mother: She became mother for first time at 19, and she didn't stopped to had children until her mid-30s, when she took a Vow of Celibacy, and even with that, her final child, Quiet Bird, was adopted when when she was in her later 30s-earlier 40s. And if we take into account her words during the "Witch of the Woods" sub-arc, and also in the alternative continuity "Alternate Worlds of Katmandu", she became into an Absurdly Youthful Grandmother, even more in the later case, when Thea, her eldest daughter, had children at 18, while Liska was about in her later 30s.
• Action Girl: Since she is the main character, and later on, the warchief of her tribe, this is a given, considering she killed three Hoplite warriors with her own hands.
• Action Mom: A rather extreme example, as she was the mother of more than eleven children, and being able to defend them from any danger when the need arised.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Not exactly "begging" per se, but in the final arc of the comic,Liska didn't had any problem on asking help from Indigo Weechai, the Hoplite guy which manipulated her and caused a rift between her and Kress during "The Hunt" sub-arc, in order to buy many of his rifles so she could use them against Rakon and his war party, even if that meant having to both swallow her pride, and damage her reputation as a warrior in the process.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: While she didn't had a choice in this particular matter, Liska fell in love with Rial, and while he also loved her back, he also treated her like her slave even after she gained warriorhood until he finally mellowed out years later. This is partly because Rial's grandmother, Mother Sanna, wanted her to had children with him.
• Amazonian Beauty: Especially in the issues drawn by Shawntae Howard, when she gets some extra abs, while still keeping her own good looks.
• Ambiguous Gender Identity: A rather bizarre case that needs to be explained here. In short, both Liska herself and everyone else outside her family identify her as a female, but for her wives and the Shaygin-born children, she is addressed with male terms, like "husband" or "father". To make things even more confusing, when she wears formal clothes, she wears male buckskins , but when she wears less clothing, especially when hunting or fishing, her clothes are obviously female, yet the same thing happens when she wears clothes in the privacy of her home, where she normally wears female clothes without any problem.
• Ambiguous Situation: Her relationship with Shaygin, as it was never clarified if Liska physically abused her, thorough this is discussed by Word of God in her Q&A section:
  • In issue 10, the first issue of the The Curse of the Blood sub-arc, Liska got angry with her when the latter mixed her Shurinar Stones, a device used in-universe by all the women of the setting in order to know when they are fertile, with Liska's. This caused the latter to clench her fists, while Shaygin was ready to accept her punishment, but Liska seems to change her mind, and she didn't.
  • While not likely canonical, the side-story The Stumpler also deals with this, through Played for Laughs, as Shaygin, together with her daughter Thea, seems to had invented a quite absurd story in order to drive away a persistent lesbian girl from snatching Liska from her, up to depicting Liska as a really abusive spouse, to the grade that girl ran away after finding out the "truth". At the end of the story, we see a very angry Liska menacing Shaygin with her fist in a very comical way, but the latter doesn't seem to be scared at all.
• Antiquated Linguistics: For some bizarre and unexplained reason, she had the quirk of using Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe when she felt especially romantic or erotic towards her loved ones, mainly Pyndan or Shaygin. The bizarre part comes with the part the she was a former slave with no previous high-level education whatsoever, and the fact she wasn't of Blue Blood origins either, hailing originally from a family of humble farmers instead.^note It could be handwaved that she could had learned that language from Mother Sanna, who was more experienced in such things.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Girl: In a degree. While not as exaggerated as other examples of this trope, Liska was particulary cocky in her earlier younger days, and for good reason, since as a female, she had to demostrate her bravery in many ways, especially in a very male-oriented society she lived in.
• Artistic License – Biology: She is supposed to be a orange tabby, but she only had stripes in her tail, as Real Life orange tabbies do not have solid colors like Liska; it's very likely her color pattern was a license due to the limitations of coloring technology at the time.
• Artistic License – History: Somewhat: While not by any means universal, Liska was very lucky the worst thing that happened to her during her slavery years, outside a brief mention about being beaten by Rial in the first days being a slave, was being bullied by Kebec and her sister and being used as Rial and Mother Sanna's personal cook. In Real Life, Liska, as an human and depending on the tribe, or the people with whom she would have ended up being her masters, she would have most likely ended up being either raped or treated much worse than depicted in the comic, and in some cases, she could have ended up being tortured or executed.
• Artistic License – Law: During the Family Matters sub-arc, Liska, along with Pyndan, managed to reach a deal with Liska's former tribe, the Lowland tribe, in order to both apologizing for Pyndan and Rial's kidnapping of her, and also apologizing for stealing the Lowland tribe's food and resources, and also reaching a deal to share food and resources with the Highland tribe. In Real Life, Liska, as both a woman and a person which barely managed to get ascended to warriorhood a few days before, would not have been able to reach such agreements on her own, as she would lack the necessary authority to make them valid, since the only person capable of validating them would be Chief Pownetkee, the tribe chief of the Highland tribe.^note Furthermore, Liska is quite lucky than the worst thing that happened to her in that arc was being punched in the face by Brand, another warrior from her former tribe and someone who wanted to date her when they were young. In real life, both Liska and Pyndan would very likely end up being either captured and/or executed, the former due to being a traitor and a desertor from her tribe, and the latter as the person who, along Rial, attacked the Lowland tribe and kidnapped Liska in the first place.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: She was the head of the Mitsel-eman clan, and years later, the tribe chief of the whole Highland tribe, and she's also bar none of its greatest warriors.
• Badass Adorable: In her younger days, Liska was notoriously beautiful and sweet, which weren't an impediment for her for both her fighting and leadership skills.
• Badass in Distress: One of the few times Liska was in genuine danger and needed the help of someone else was during the tribal games when Rakon tried to rape her, but both Rial and Markree managed to stop him before he could do anything.
• Badass Normal: Liska is notorious for being one of the few action-oriented heroines in the Furry Fandom on not having any kind of powers, beyond being very resilent to almost everything thrown to her despite her role as The Chosen One. All the strength she had was because she hailed from a culture that requires you to be strong in order to survive the Crapsack World that is the planet Katmandu.
• Berserk Button:
  • Don't lay a finger on her family, or any member of her tribe, for that matter, if you value your life.
  • Slavery is another button for her, as she was originally a slave at first, and one of the greatest changes she did after she became a warchief was banning slavery in her tribe, and any slave that gets in her hands was set free immeditely, through in most cases, especially involving female slaves, many of them became her wives.
  • Another way to put her in her wrong side was asking questions about her personal matters, something that both Pyndan and even her brother Markree found the hard way.
  • Probably her biggest button is to invoking the Stay in the Kitchen trope on her: Not only she is a bad cook, the sole mention of her trying to cook for someone else will drive her into homicidal rage against anyone foolish enough to mention this, especially Rial and Rakon, in that order.
• Beautiful Slave Girl: At first, and one of the reasons why she was made a slave to begin with, and also why Rial took an interest on her later on in order to marry with her.
• Breast Plate:
  • As a warrior, Liska weared one in battle in order to protect her chest from arrow or piercing attacks.
  • She also used the same armor during the Tournament Arc, as she was pregnant and she needed to protect her belly from damage, while just wearing shoes, a thong, a bra, and nothing else.
• Briefer Than They Think: In-universe: Despite her deeds, Liska didn't became a tribe chief until her 50s after Chief Pownetkee died of old age, and she only lasted in such position for less than a year, before dying in combat against Rakon's loyalist forces, and that if we exclude her time as acting chief three years when Pownetkee became senile and unable to carry out his duties.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Or more exactly, Broke Your Arm When Trying to Kill Godzilla, as during "The Hunt" sub-arc, the first Gomorrin dislocated her arm when trying to kill the beast by grabbing her exactly there. After recovering, she managed to kill the second one by herself.
• The Chains of Command: Technically speaking, she was the number three in the tribe's hierarchy, as the people in charge were Chief Powntkee, Mother Sanna, and much later, Shaygin, in that order. For all practical effects, however, Sanna and Liska, again in that order, are the ones calling the shots in the tribe, while Chief Pownetkee's role was basically being the face of the tribe, probably on the grounds he was male.
• Character Development: Basically, the whole story of Katmandu is about Liska and her growth from a slave in her younger years to a tribe chief in her elder years, only ending with her ultimate death in battle.
• The Chosen One: Deconstructed: Liska was this because, at least in the words of Chief Pownetkee, she was chosen by the Goddess to be a warrior. Obviously enough, the latter possibly had to come with a hefty explanation to justify his decision on him giving Liska warrior status despite the latter being a woman, and the only way to do it was giving our heroine a Fetch Quest and later, she had to summon the Goddess alone in a hill; this is double subverted because she was in fact really a chosen one for her tribe and her destiny would be to lead her tribe sooner or later.
• Clean, Pretty Childbirth: While we don't know if were the same case with previous births, as well with Shaygin and the rest of the females in era, barring Patches at the final arc, this is averted like hell and back during the Curse of the Blood sub-arc, when she suffered a really severe physical trauma when giving birth to her children between her and Pyndan to the grade she took the black drink, so she wouldn't risk death again at childbirth.
• Coming-Out Story: Very downplayed here. Liska outing herself from the closet as a bi isn't even lampshaded by her own peers, even if it came out in a very unexpected way, as she had sex with Rial two issues before this, and it wasn't even foreshadowed in-universe. The only character who really mind her sexuality when she came out from the closet was Flint, who was her enemy, as he hold Rial as his slave. And even with this, it's heavily implied that Liska faked it at first in order to buy back Rial from slavery, just to really love Shaygin as a result, and marrying with her afterwards.
• Cool Horse: Her riding lizard, Thetis.
• Country Mouse: She originally hailed from a very poor family in the Lowlands, and, at the large scale of things, she wasn't very different to everyone else, outside being a tomboy.
• Covert Pervert: Somewhat. While not common, Liska was not afraid to say her tastes on women, or what she did exactly on bed with them at times.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Downplayed, but Liska was notable on never backing down either a challenge, or anything else that could hurt her family, friends or her tribe, consequences be damned. Even after her death centuries ago, she did this when helping Thorin during a mission when the former was fighting against mercenaries lurking in the same place Rial, her late mate, died centuries ago.
• Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: She used this threat against Patches' father during the "Wicked Ways" sub-arc, while barely containing herself on not killing him after rescuing Thea from him and Patches' sisters:
  Liska: You're my wife's father. As my wedding gift, I will not kill you, if you enter our ville again, my warriors will fill you so full of arrows you'll look like a hen.
• Darkest Hour: A double-wammy of this happens in the last five issues, as Liska and the rest of the Highland tribe lost their original home and their forced to move to the forests, and if this wasn't enough, Liska has to face Rakon and his people for a Final Battle in a really nasty tribal war, just when she was ascended to tribal chief, replacing Chief Pownetkee.
• Dead Guy Junior: Not her, but according with the Katmandu Handbook, all her living children, with the sole exception of Quiet Bird, are named after her late relatives in order to ask their spirits to protect them.
• Do Not Go Gentle: During the final battle against Rakon's remaining loyal forces, Liska kept fighting to the bitter end until she died by her wounds, but not before she kept them away from the village in order to win time.
• Doomed Protagonist: As being the Tragic Hero wasn't enough for her, her fate was sealed the day she became a warrior during her vision quest, together with her death being foreshadowed many times, until the final issue, when she finally bited the dust for real.
• Dramatic Irony: Twice:
  • Big, friggin' time at the very final sub-arc of the comic: Liska began her career as a warrior when defending her tribe from marauding raiders when she was a young girl. Her death in elderly years was caused when fighting against raiders, this time being more than she could realistically handle and this time being more competent on dealing with her.
  • Liska's entire life post-slavery could be considered a giant dramatic irony of the highest level, since she lost her slave status, just to end up being a "free" warrior against her will, which imposed other sets of obligations on her, making her ironically a slave from her own society, and from which she could not free herself. And that without mention her family and clan obligations as well, a fact she was completely aware of. To make matters even worse, she was also a slave of fate itself.
• The Dreaded: By the time she is in her 30s, Liska became this for almost every member of her tribe, and by the time she reach her 50s, she became this for the rest of the Natives of the Plains region, especially after she killed Rakon and most of his war party by using rifles and using his son in a death duel against him.
• Drowning My Sorrows: In issue 36, Liska hits the bottle harder than before after finally killing Rakon when the entire village celebrated their victory against Rakon's Red Canyon tribe since she felt that, even if she managed to win, she felt her victory was hollow and also because she won using very dishonorable methods, as she used fireguns brought by Hesta via Indigo against Rakon and his tribe, which also means that, sooner or later, [[spoiler:every single tribe in the region would end using rifles as well, signaling the end of the Native era.
• Easily Forgiven: Liska seems to never had a long-lasting grudge against anyone, and she is willing to forgive people who wronged her, as long the other person reciprocates or is willing to do the same, like Rial, her mate and former master. There were three exceptions on this rule, however:
  • She really hated Rakon for both stealing a kiss from Shaygin, defeating her during the tribal games, and also for trying to rape her, which caused to clash with him many times in their lives. She finally died at hands of him and his tribe, but not before saving her tribe first and very likely killing him later on.
  • She basically gave Kress to Indigo as a retaliation for betraying her, even if this was done with the former's permission. She really later regreted it afterwards.
  • Liska was ready to kill Patches's father and her family without any other consideration, and it took both Shaygin and Patches, whom she married as a Loophole Abuse tactic to force her to stay in the tribe, and to avoid her father to reclaim her. It should be noted this was the only time Liska married with someone for reasons other than romantic ones.
• Even the Girls Want Her: Since she is a free warrior and later warchief, she is entitled to have as many wives as she want, through most of the times, the girls really want to stay with her, partly due to her kindness and also because due to her looks. This is constantly lampshaded in-universe, to the grade Flint joked that Liska has more women than fingers in her hand.
• Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: As much as she rather prefer to solve things peacefully, there's some characters that Liska really prefer to seem them dead:
  • Flint, the slaver from the Redhand tribe, was one of the first antagonists she faced, on the grounds of his job, and the fact he tried to screw with her many times in her life, including using a third party, Willoam, to kill her in his name.
  • Her most hated enemy, without any doubt, is Rakon: On top of force-kissing Shaygin, his wife, he is a homophobic, racist Barbaric Bully who also tried to rape her in their younger days, and they were fated to face each other across all their adult life, culminating with their own deaths in battle.
• Explosive Breeder: While all the female characters are subject of this, since they share many of the traits of their non-entient cousins, Liska is particularly egregious in this aspect, as she had a great total of eleven children: Six biological ones, one adopted, and another four via Shaygin, and that was before taking a Vow of Celibacy of sorts later on that prevented her later to bear more children.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: She sports many hairstyles during the whole comic, including using braids, ponytails, having her hair long, and finally, cutting her hair short in her elderly years.
• Expy:
  • If her descendant Leah is based on Albedo: Erma Felna EDF's Eda, Liska is basically Eda's daughter and the main protagonist Erma Felna, except being blonde, and being a tabby cat, rather than a feline of unknown breed/race like Erma. This is especially more obvious in issues 4 and 5, her debut issues, whe she looks like Erma dressed with Native American clothes and being younger than her. The similarity is also more notable in the Shawntae Howard of Erma, since she looks like Liska with a military uniform and having a bulkier frame.
  • According with Carole Curtis, Liska is technically based not in a specific person or character per se, but in a concept, in this case, of the Woman Chief and Woman Warrior figure used in some Native American tribes.^note Some parts of her backstory, however, are very similar to the ones from Sacagawea, including being a former slave after her tribe was attacked, having children with an outsider, and the possibility she was a female tribe chief in her later years, through Sacagawea never was a warrior like her anthro counterpart. Interestingly enough, one of Sacagawea's children was named Lisette Charbonneau (see Meaningful Name below for more details).
  • On the other hand, Liska bears a striking resemblance to John Morgan, the main protagonist of A Man Called Horse and its sequels, both in terms of appearance and story. Like John, Liska is a blonde, blue-eyed outsider who is captured and made into a slave by a tribe based on the Lakota Sioux,^note Through John was slaved by that real-life tribe in the films. both became warriors after enemy raiders attacked their home tribe, both get married and had children, both suffer the loss of their spouse, both became the chief of their tribe, and finally, and both died in their elderly years by violent means, while their children saved the day at the end of the tale.^note There's a few differences between both characters, however: John is an English aristocrat, while Liska was a daughter of humble farmers. Furthermore, Liska really got easy during her slavery years, when the worst she endured, outside a mention about being beaten by Rial at first, was working as a cook, compared with John, which was brutally tortured and beaten by his captors. Also, Liska had many lovers, besides Rial, many of them being females, as she was bisexual, contrasting with John, which was straight and he only had one wife and one (known) child, named Koda; and finally, Liska dies in a heroic Last Stand, while John is unceremoniously killed at the beginning of the third film of the trilogy. As an additional note, John became the tribe chief at the end of the first film in his younger days, compared with Liska, who had to wait until her 50s to earn the same position and that without mention that, while John plays the Mighty Whitey and "white savior" tropes very straight, Liska mostly avoids them due to the fact that, while she is blonde and blue-eyed, she is not the only character with such features in the setting, starting with Chief Pownetkee, the very chief of her tribe, who is also a blonde, with black stripes in his hair.
  • While it could be one hell of a coincidence, Liska disturbingly shares many points in common with, of all people, the Japanese Sengoku/early Edo Era general Sanada Yukimura, including some aspects of his personality, even those who where flanderized in Real Life (something that also happens to her in-universe in some degree) and backstory, and both Liska and Yukimura also share the same tragic fate, through in different circunstances.^note While both characters died in a blaze of glory, Liska sacrified her life while attempting to drive her enemies away from her tribe, so reinforcements could reach at time, while Yukimura did something similar, but by launching a head-on assault through the defenses of Tokugawa Ieyasu's personal army during the Siege of Osaka. In both cases, their respective reinforcements were late to save them. Likewise, Liska, just like the flanderized version of the Real Life Yukimura, had a group of loyal True Companions, though unlike her human counterpart, most of them were related with her personally.^note For the record, the motto of the Sanada clan was "Always ready to die for a worthy cause", which easily could be Liska's as well.
• Family of Choice: Well, not exactly by her own choice, since she was a slave at first, but as a result of her becoming Rial's mate and setling for good on the Highland tribe, she ended up being part of the latter's life, and by default, of both Mother Sanna, Pyndan and Panka's lives.
• Famous Ancestor: Liska became legendary in her era, and she became this for Leah and her children.
• Fatal Flaw: Her most biggest flaw was her impulsiveness in the face of anything that could threaten her tribe, even if this caused unwanted consequences in the long or short term, like anything that happened during the last sub-arc, when she used dishonorable methods in order to take down Rakon and his tribe, which, at the large scale of things, almost doomed her tribe.
• Faux Yay: Her plan to buy back Rial from slavery required this with both Shaygin and Elishaa, but she changed her mind and she really felt in love with Shaygin, and she later married her, while Elishaa married with Liska's brother, Markree.
• Feline Pincushion: The way how she died in the final battle against Rakon and his tribe.
• First-Name Basis: Everyone in the story, friend, ally, family and enemy alike, addressed her by either her first name exclusively, her rank, or both. Even when she became the new tribe chief, she was still addressed by her first name by almost everyone else, very likely because everyone in the tribe called her "Liska" since her teen years. The only character who addressed by her last name is an old warrior named Split Tree, who appear in the last arc.
• Folk Hero: Downplayed at first: The only people who knew about the story of her life were her descendants, and with the sole exception of a woman which Leah was treating with the same RH-incompatibility problem Pyndan, Liska's second mate, had and she later found out she was also a distant relative of her, and by default, Liska, no one else knew a thing about her deeds, until the final arc, when an adult Loanzah found her future husband also knew about the story of her ancestor, along with another person, a Mousekind scholar named Master Cheddar, who was the descendant of Chief Cor-mac-den, who participated in the final battle against Rakon and his war party. This is later played straight at the very end in the epilogue episode "The End of a Tail", since Leahtrah became a curator for a museum in order to tale the story of Liska to the entire world.
• Foregone Conclusion: She was fated that she was going to die in battle, alone, and that was exactly what happened to her, but not before going down in a blaze of glory.
• Go-Go Enslavement: During her time as a slave, Liska weared very skimpy clothes, including a dirty blouse, a pair a sandals and nothing else. She didn't even weared underwear, causing her to be the target for bullying from Kebec, much for Rial's perverted pleasure.
• Going Commando: During her time as a slave, she didn't weared any kind of underwear, much less a loincloth, as neither Mother Sanna nor Rial gave her other clothes beyond the ones she had until she became a warrior, and even after she gained warriorhood, Liska never weared any afterwards, through she also used skimpy clothes when taking baths, or hunting.
• Guile Heroine: As the story goes on and when she becames a war chief, Liska became more cunning in order to deal with many other hostile tribes who want a piece of her and her people, having sometimes to do somewhat questionable things, like virtually kidnapping Patches in the "Wicked Ways" sub-arc in order to figuring ouut her family's intentions, along other things.
• Hair Color Dissonance: Somewhat, considering the comic is drawn in black and white: While in color illustrations she is always depicted as a blonde, in the comic itself Liska's hair goes between her official blonde (white tone) to brunette (black or darker tones). It wasn't until the "Ceremonies'' sub-arc that her hair finally sticks to blonde since then.
• Heroic Spirit: In an almost literal version of this trope, it's heavily implied she did became this after her death, considering she still helped people, including her descendants, in many times of the story of the planet Katmandu.
• Hidden Depths: According with the Katmandu Handbook, Liska was an expert pot maker in her free time, but she had to work in secret, as pot making was considered as a women's job, and due to her warrior status, that could turned her into target for bullying for either Kebec, Kayce and anyone else.
• Inexplicably Awesome: It was never fully explained why Liska was pretty "special", to a better description, compared with everyone else in the setting, since, at the large scale of the things, she didn't have other skills that made her so different from her peers, outside being a female warrior in a time period when the whole idea of a woman becoming a warrior was considered almost a heresy in her own land, being The Chosen One by the Goddess, being bisexual, and having a very unusual resistance.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: While this was warned beforehand by the Goddess to Liska the day she became a warrior, while no one told her was the fact that being a legendary warrior defintively carries lots of responsabilities that someone like her, who hails from very humble origins, is completely unpreparated to, something she later discussed many times with her family. And the Goddess wasn't lying about the Dying Alone part at the very end of her life.
• The Lad-ette: Played a bit: While she was more feminine than your average Lad-ette, being one of the prettiest girls of the story, if not the prettiest one next to her descendant Leah, she also likes to smoke, drink heavily, has no problems on swearing (at least at first), and likes having sex with anyone she likes at almost daily basis, male or female alike.
• Lady of War: Since she was a warchief, this is quite a given, through at the end this was subverted, as Liska prefered to use her brains over brawn.
• Lesser of Two Evils: Becoming a warrior was the less worst of all choices Liska did when asking for the blessing of the Goddess, because her other two choices were equally bad or even worse: Becoming a prostitute, or ending up being the wife of an abusive, alcoholic husband.
• Lethal Chef: According with her, one of the few things Liska doesn't excel on is on cooking, through she did cook for a while when she was a slave. This is especifically relevant, since she hailed from an era which was expected that a woman should know how to cook, but she defied that tradition, to the grade all the cooking done in her home was done by either Shaygin or other characters.
• Lipstick Lesbian: She was a very beautiful, feminine woman, and she has many female lovers, including other former sex slaves, which she also treated them as well as Rial treat her in his time before his death. she later became a Butch Lesbian in her elder years when she became the tribe chief, as she cut out her hair and she looks more tomboyish than before. This is especially bizarre in her case, considering she is the only character who looks aged, compared with everyone else except Patches, who still look the same as in their younger years. It should be noted that this only applies with any depiction of her drawn by anyone else who is not Shawntae Howard, who drew elder Liska in the Distant Finale exactly the same as she looked like in her younger days.
• Living Emotional Crutch: She was this for Shaygin, to the grade the sole thought that Liska could die at any moment could make Shaygin cry.
• Long-Dead Badass: While the entire fighting cast from her era qualifies, the entire premise of the story is about the life of this girl, the ancestor of Leahtrah Middlesmith, who lived 200 years in the past, and who was a certified badass who had fought anything from wild beasts, other warriors, monsters, soldiers, dinosaurs, Kaiju, witches, and if we include "The Tomorrow Breed" continuity, even humans, cyborgs and aliens.
• Love Interest: For Shaygin, Rial, Pyndan and Patches.
• Love Triangle: Between her and Rial and his brother Pyndan, which make most of the drama of the comic. Rial was Liska's first mate before he died, and later on, Pyndan became her Second Love and she beared children with both of them.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: As she became older, for some bizarre reason she became somewhat more horny than she was before in her younger years, and she wasn't above to say dirty jokes or tales about sex, even within her own family, reaching almost Dirty Old Woman levels, especially in the last arc.
• Made of Iron: Liska was surprisingly resilent to almost anything thrown to her, and she managed to survive stuff which normally would had killed any other person. Unfortunately for her, as she aged, her natural resistence weared out and she died on combat against Rakon and his tribe, but even with that, it took a lot of punishment and arrows to take her down for good.
• Male Gaze:
  • In the art drawn by Terrie Smith, most of her shots are pointed at her breasts, body, or her face.
  • In the art drawn by Shawntae Howard, her rear, belly and legs are the ones who get more atention instead.
• Martial Pacifist: Liska didn't liked to fight for the taste of it, and she normally prefered to deal with anyone by using diplomacy, or in the worse case, blackmail if necessary, but if someone wanted to pick a fight with her, or threatened her tribe or family, she was more than ready to kick some asses against anyone standing her way.
• Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: She is the "masculine" part, per tribal rules, of any of her relationships with women. This is subverted, as Liska was quite feminine in her privacy.
• Meaningful Name: It's heavily implied, judging by the developments from the story, that her name "Liska" is a bastardization of the Slovakian name "Eliška"^note Pronounced "Elish-ka"., which is the local rendering of "Elizabeth", which, at the same time, came from the Greek form of the Hebrew name "Elisheva", which means "my God is an oath", a quite fitting name considering what happens to her during her Vision Quest, and very especifically, at the end of the story. It helps that "Elizabeth" has been a name used by several female monarchs and rulers throughout history, the most famous being the late Queen Elizabeth II.
• Mighty Whitey: A very bizarre, alien furry twist on this trope could be applied with her. Liska had blonde hair, blue eyes, and her fur has lighter colors compared with many of the members of the cast, excluding Chief Pownetkee, Pyndan, Hesta, Rakon and in less degree, her mate Rial (who has white hair, but his fur is black with white patches, and his eyes are brown) and she went from a slave coming from a rival tribe to war chief of the tribe she was original a slave to. The bizarre part, and also a subversion, is the fact she was also a Native like everyone else in her time, so it's very likely some of Liska's own ancestors could had blue eyes and blond hair, or very likely her looks is due to a genetic mutation. Even more bizarre that Markree, her younger brother, has black hair and his fur is grey with black stripes, through he was also a tabby cat like his sister.
• Ms. Fanservice: Very blatantly so, especially in earlier issues, when many of the artists seems to always had an excuse to show her naked, or in a sexy pose, at any chance.
• Multiple-Choice Future: This is the whole point of The Search of Magic sub-arc, as the only requisite required for Liska to became a warrior was to receive the blessings of the Goddess, which gave Liska one hell of a Sadistic Choice for probable outcomes for her life: Continuing being a slave and ending her life as a prostitute, being Rial's wife and ending in the hands of a abusive drunkard after the latter could had died in combat, and the last one, becaming a warrior, feared and loved by eveybody, but with the likely outcome of Dying Alone in combat. Liska chose the latter, knowing that her family will continue her legacy with her children.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Suffered an epic one at the end of issue 36 when she figured out that by using Indigo's firearms against Rakon and his war party when they tried to launch a surprise attack against her tribe, would cause that sooner or later, every single tribe in the region would fight using them, causing a Lensman Arms Race and dooming their entire culture in the process.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Done especially when someone put Liska in her bad side, when trying to ressure herself before others, or when identifying herself.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: This is what happened with her at the very end: By using firearms against Rakon and his goons, Liska signaled the beginning of a new era when rifles and guns replaced primitive methods of warfare, like knives, bows, arrows and maces, and causing the Native era to end. To make matters worse, it's heavily implied she was the main cause, if not the main reason, of the two centuries-long war between Velites and Hoplites, something that she deeply regrets, and caused her to pull a Heroic Sacrifice in order to both save her tribe and redeem herself at the eyes of the world.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Played straight with every artist depicting her even when she was on her 30s and later 40s, but later averted with the Jerry Loomis' version of her in the final arc, when Liska really look aged, through not at Mother Sanna's levels. Interesting enough, Shawntae Howard depicted her in the scene when in the epilogue episode when Leah, as the museum's curator, shows a diorama depicting her Last Stand, when Liska looks exactly the same during that event as she was in her younger years, despite she was about 55 when she died.^note It should be noted, however, that according with Howard himself, he drew that scene with very few knowledge about the previous events past issue 24, when he stopped working for Shanda Fantasy Arts for health reasons and he didn't knew very well any of the events that happened on Liska's life afterwards, outside a brief resume given by Carole Curtis, the author herself, to him, causing him to depicting her the same way as she was young. The same goes for Terrie Smith in a pin-up she did about her, as she depicted in the same way as she was the last time she drew her, except with much better art due to Art Evolution, and depicting her somewhat taller than usual.
• Not Too Dead to Save the Day: Twice; even after she died centuries ago, she still had the chance to help people from beyond the grave:
  • In the first time, she helped the family of her descendant Leah, or in this case, to help her husband Thorin on dealing with the mercenaries dwelling in the same place her mate Rial died.
  • The second one was in a shorter side-story published in the last Katmandu Annual, named "Brothers-in-Arms", when Liska helped a Velite soldier during the Velite-Hoplite war in the same place she died.
• Official Couple: Due to her very long harem, she had many of them:
  • From the male side: There were Rial and later on, his brother Pyndan, through she was forced to break with him after she took her Vow of Celibacy.
  • From the female side: Shaygin, Elishaa and later on, Patches, but officially speaking, at the end of the story only Shaygin and Patches remained as her official wives, while Elishaa married with her younger brother Markree.
• Out-Gambitted: This is what happens to her in the last issue; Liska never expected that Rakon still had loyal warriors who where outside their tribe when he died, and they were prepared to exact revenge on both her and the Highland tribe.
• Parents as People: Somewhat; while not abusive by any means, Liska became more jaded in her later years, and she had problems on dealing with more personal matters, like her daughter Thea's flirty and rebelious personality. This could be explained that most of her entire life she has been more a warrrior than a woman, or a normal person for that matter and she barely had any experience in being a parent, considering that she was a orphan.
• Phenotype Stereotype: A furry example: she is blonde and blue-eyed, with a orange tabby fur to match. However, she barely avoids both Mighty Whitey, since that trope applies better to Hesta instead, being a Hoplite, and "white savior"-related tropes on the fact that she is not the only Native-like character in her era with similar features, like Chief Pownetkee, Pyndan, Kress, many of her children and Rakon.
• Plot Armor: Being the protagonist, Liska rarely suffered life-threatening injuries, and most of the time she only needed a good rest, or healing to return to action. The armor definitively went off for her at the final battle against Rakon's tribe, but it took a lot of punishment to finally kill her.
• Pregnant Badass: Since she was an Explosive Breeder, Liska had being forced to fight for her life while waiting litters more than once:
  • The first time was, chronologically speaking, after Rial was taken as a slave, and she had to return to the her hometown in the Lowlands with her family, while having to hunt for both her new tribe and her old.
  • During the Tournament Arc, Liska had to participate in the games while waiting another litter from Rial; as a result, she had to wear a breast plate to protect her belly from any damage.
  • The last one was forced to fight against Willoem, one of Panka's rejected suitors, while waiting yet another litter, this time from Pyndan.
• Queer Establishing Moment: The entire plot of issue 6, the last issue of the "Woman of Honor" sub-arc, when Liska finally came out from the closet and declares in front of both her tribe and Flint that she also like women.
• Rags to Riches: From being a lowly slave to becoming the war chief of the Highland tribe, and finally, becoming the tribe chief, through the pleasure was short-lived to her, as Rakon and his tribe killed her in a surprise attack at night, but not before saving the surviving members of her tribe.
• Rank Up: Slave—>War Chief—>Clan Chief—>Tribe Chief.
• Ready for Lovemaking: For her first night with Rial, Mother Sanna dressed Liska in the best way she could, including her wearing something that looks between a bathrobe and a Japanese yukata.
• Redemption Equals Death: Her Heroic Sacrifice could be interpreted as one, as she knew that, even if she survived, the fact she obliterated Rakon by both using firearms, and later, by using her younger son Quiet Bird in a Death Duel that she must have fought herself in person meant that she would have been regarded by everyone else in her time as a cowardly and honorless person who used any method to win, so her only way to redeem herself at the eyes of the world was to sacrifice her own life in a selfless act in order to also protect her tribe and her family.
• Religious Bruiser: Not only she was one of the best warriors of the Highland tribe, she was also one of the most religious ones, as she worshipped the Goddess very frequently.
• Right Through the Wall: Liska was notorious for being really noisy during sex, to the grade that even her daughters were starting to complain about all the noises she did in her own intimacy with her wives. Hilariously enough, her descendant Leah shares the same quirk with her.^note This is Truth in Television, as cats are notorious for being quite noisy during sex.
• Rite-of-Passage Name Change: A variation that involves her clan name: Her original one was "Tas-so-wen" when she was part of the Lowland tribe. When she became a warrior, she was given a new one, "Mitsel-eman", which she used during all her life.
• Royal Harem: Well, the Native American version of this trope. Liska has many female wives, with their respective children, as part of the tradition of her tribe on taking as many wives a she could. Unlike other versions of this trope, Liska treated all the people of her harem very well, and hurting them was her very personal Berserk Button.
• She Is the King: A variation of this trope: Despite being female, all her female lovers, excluding Patches, who addressed her by her name instead, call her "husband" due to their customs that forbid a female warrior to became the wife of another male. Luckily for her, the rules didn't forbade her to have male lovers and having children with them; as a result of this, her children also address her as "father". ^note It should be noted, however, she was still addressed as a "she" by everyone else when her gender was discussed, and she considered herself a woman. Also, this rule is only applied for her children born from Shaygin, and not the ones she gave birth on her own, very likely due to Shaygin herself addressed her as a husband.
• Settled for Gay: A very odd case: At first, it was never stated at the beginning of the story that Liska was bisexual, or even having a taste for women, since she had sex with Rial at first, until she met with both Shaygin and Elishaa. The weird part comes with the fact she at first wasn't interested on having a relationship with either of them, until she was basically forced to, partly because to tribal laws that prevented her to marry with Rial now that she became a warrior, and partly because she needed to turn herself bi in order to buy back Rial from Flint.
• Sex Slave: And also Breeding Slave as well. She was originally this for Rial at first, until she earned her freedom. Unlike other depictions of this trope, however, Rial treated her really well like a real wife, and he really loved her.
• Silver Vixen: Even in her elder years Liska still looked good for a woman in her later 50s, even more than Mother Sanna, who was around that age when Liska met her at 17 years old; this is more accentuated in the Distant Finale as a result of she being drawn again by Shawntae Howard, the artist who did the art of the comic until issue 24, as she looks exactly the same as she looked in her younger days.
• The Smurfette Principle: Until Hesta joined her tribe, Liska was the only female warrior in the Highland tribe for many years. Also, she was also the first and very likely the only female tribe chief in both her tribe and also the only female ruler in the whole setting.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the "Alternate Worlds of Katmandu" continuity, as a result of the existence of Matoo and the events that befall both of them, Liska had a normal life and she never had to sacrifice her life against Rakon and his tribe. In fact, Rakon doesn't even exist in that continuity.^note And even if he existed, it's very likely he wouldn't survive a direct battle against Matoo, considering how the latter had fought entire armies single-handed.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Despite being kidnapped by an enemy tribe, she never tried to escape or made any attempt to free herself from her captors and she seems to have lived relatively well with them, to the grade she became their war chief. It helps her a lot that Rial and his family treated Liska well.
• Super-Reflexes: Somewhat. One of her skills, very likely due to being her a cat, is having pretty quick reflexes, including being able to catch a spear mid-air, while throwing a knife against a target at the same time.
• Tachi: On regard with her relationships with women, she is the "giving" half of the relationship, through she could be the Neko at times. Extra hilarity that she was a literal cat.^note Neko, besides being the Japanese slang word for the "receiving" part in the Yuri Genre, it also means "cat" in Japanese.
• To Be a Master: Subverted: Liska was never truly interested into becoming something better than she already was, partly to her own humble origins as a slave, a she never wanted to be in the Highland tribe to begin with, and also the fact the warrior position was imposed to her against her will; the only thing she wanted is to had a peaceful life with her family and her tribe, no more and no less, something she outright stated countless times in the comic. The only reason she is forced to do this was as a result of living in a very unforgiving Crapsack World that forced her to be leader of her people and she couldn't simply ignore those responsabilities.
• Together in Death: It's heavily implied that, after she died, her soul reunited with Rial's in the same place he died years ago. This is especially relevant, story-wise, because this is the only explanation how Liska's soul managed to help Thorin in the same place her mate died 200 years ago.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Somewhat, but she is the tomboy over Shaygin's girliness, despite both being lipstick lesbians, through she later plays this trope more or less straight as she got older. It should be mentioned that Shaygin herself mentioned that Liska looked quite virile for her when both were younger.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: While doing her official duties as a warchief, Liska normally weared buckskins normally intented for males, and her personality and looks were a little bit male-ish at times, but she also enjoyed to use female clothing when the need arised.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Downplayed a bit, but in her later years, having to deal with the safety of her tribe and her family on her shoulders, having too many children and above all, the death of Rial took a notable toll in her mental health, causing her to became somewhat more cynical and stoic, rather than her previous, more cheerful personality she had in her younger days. This was notorious during the "Wicked Days" sub-arc, when she was ready to kill Patches' father and her sisters when they kidnapped Thea without ever having to consider a less violent solution like she would had done in better days, and both Patches and even Shaygin had to beg to Liska on not killing Patches' father first to make her change her mind.
• Tragic Heroine: And how!: Just to beginners, her parents died due to pneumonia a year before Rial and Pyndan kidnapped her and turned her into a slave, and then, into Rial's Sex Slave. Then, she became a warrior against her will when she had to defend her adoptive tribe from an army of raiders, and as wasn't this enough for her, The Goddess worshipped in the planet Katmandu blessed her with warriorhood, with the catch that she will die in battle, alone and in pain. During her whole life, Liska lived a life full of adventures, but also full of personal suffering, having to gradually renounce her own womanhood in order to become a full warrior, and also to protect her own life, especially after she barely survived a hard birth labor as a result of her last male mate, Pyndan, was also "cursed" by the Goddess (while technically, his curse had a natural, genetic origin). Finally, after she became a chief, her tribe was attacked by Rakon, who tried to rape her decades ago and, after fighting him countless times off-screen in the past, the latter went for a final battle against her, and while she won at the end, the result was bittersweet for her, because accidentally kickstarted a whole planet-wide Lensman Arm Race, who also indirectally caused the long war betwen the Velites and Hoplites that lasted until Leah's era, and her fate was sealed when Rakon's remaining loyalist forces tried to avenge his death by launching a deadly ambush, causing Liska sacrifice her life as a result.
• Undignified Death: No matter how the story puts it, her death is incredibly violent and heartbreaking for a protagonist, as she dies alone, bleeding to death in a cave, knowing that this would be her fate from the day she became a warrior. But at least she died with the satisfaction that she saved her people from their enemies, in her last heroic act of her life.
• Ur-Example: In a degree, in-universe: While she is not the very first legendary hero registered in the annals from the history of the planet Katmandu, as that title goes for King Artoismagne of the Hoplite nation, who was born a millenia before her birth, Liska is definitely this for basically any Velite folk hero, and by default, any legendary figure, Velite and Hoplite alike, that came after her. A better analogy would be comparing the former with Gilgamesh, while Liska could be the Katmandu equivalent of King Arthur.
• Vague Age: Subverted; her age is never officially stated in the comics, but in the Katmandu Handbook, through there is many differences between her stated age and how she should look, taking into account the events from the story. According with the Handbook, Liska was 14 when she was kidnapped by Rial and Pyndan, and 18 when she became both Rial's bed slave and later, a warrior; this causes some incongruities, though: The comic state that between her kidnapping and becoming Rial's bed slave, there was a one year skip instead, so it's very likely she was between 17-18 at that time, since otherwise, her relation with Rial could had turned into something more darker. Also, in the comic, it is pointed out that between that event and Rial's death, there was a 12 year Time Skip, which means that Lisla should be 30 years old by then, but the book state she was 33 instead.^note It should be also noted that, according with the Handbook, the Katmandu calendar is very different from the human Gregorian (Anno Domini/Common Era) calendar, so it's very likely Liska's (and everyone else, for that matter) age could be different from human reckoning.
• Vow of Celibacy: Sort of. In issue 18, after barely surviving a very hard labor after having Pyndan's children, Liska decided on not having any more litters, considering Pyndan's own curse, aka Rh-incompatibility by making a vow of infertility that prevented her to do so. Her decision caused lots of drama between her and Shaygin, thinking the latter that Liska would never had sex with her again, and in less degree, with Pyndan. Luckily for her, her new vow didn't prevented her to have sex, and in latter issues, that didn't also prevented her on just adopting another children when necessary.
• What the Hell, Hero?: This happened to her twice:
  • The most notable one was during the "Wicked Ways" sub-arc, as she planned to kill Patches' father and her sisters in order to rescue Thea, who was kidnapped by them as a way to force her to bring back Patches to them. It took both Patches, and even Shaygin, who until that point she had never questioned her decisions, to make her change her mind, and even with this, it took lots of effort for her on not trying to killing them on the spot.
  • Another bigger one was in latter issues her decision on adopting Quiet Bird, a long-tooth Hoplite, as her son, something that was called out on her by the entire tribe.
• World's Best Warrior: Despite not being the strongest one (that privilege goes first for Hesta, Rakon, and finally,her adoptive son Quiet Bird), Liska was still one of the best warriors the planet Katmandu had ever seen, due to a combination of many factors, including the use of revolutionary tactics never used in her era, like being the first person on using firearms on warfare, abolishing slavery, and the use of diplomacy for settling difficult matters, rather than resorting to violence, like almost everyone in her era did.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Somewhat: While the story is definitively not short of beautiful girls, including her, many characters, males and females alike, and the narrative itself in an indirect way considered Liska as this, partly due to her charisma, looks, and personality. Oddly enough, of all the things she likes to brag about herself, her natural beauty is the only thing she doesn't boast about, and she prefered to brag about Shaygin, her wife, beauty, instead.
• You Are in Command Now: Twice:
  • After the end of "The Hunt" sub-arc, Liska is promoted to Clan Chief since one of the clan chiefs, named Colin, died in combat against the first Gomorrin, and as a result, his clan marged with hers, becoming Liska her new leader, through not by her choice.
  • In the final sub-arc, she finally became the Tribe Chief as a replacement from the late Chief Pownetkee, but for her misfortune, the pleasure was very short-lived, since Rakon and his tribe attacked her tribe with the sole intention to kill her and every single member of the Highland tribe.
• You Cannot Fight Fate: According with the Goddess, Liska was fated to die alone in combat, a fate she quietly accepted; and her fate was sealed during the final arc.
• You Don't Look Like You: As a result of her being drawn by many artists across the years, especially anyone who is not either Terrie Smith or Shawntae Howard, there's some cases when Liska looks very different from what she should traditionally look like:
  • In the "Witch of the Woods" sub-arc, Liska looks more human-like than other depictions of her, including having tiger stripes in her face, which she never had before.
  • The same is even worse in the side-story "Plaga and Vida", when she is basically a bizarre mix between a cat, an elf and a Persocom.
• Young and in Charge: She became a war chief when she was about just 18-19 years old and later clan chief at just 22 after the event from "The Hunt" sub-arc. On the other hand, Liska didn't became tribe chief until she was much older.