#i wrote so much that I legit have to rb this to my ittuatuq blog lol

[crystallizedkingdoms]

all the posts youve tagged as igsi have created SUCH an interesting portrait!!! if you ever want to talk about him, please take this as an invitation!!

sending this ask is like hand-feeding me crack cocaine. I WILL utilize this invitation i will tell you this man’s fucking life now. under the cut because this gets extremely long but tl;dr for anyone else: Igsi is my angry dog coded character who hates authority and will NOT respect gods (even though he ends up dating one)

OKAY so to start off. Igsivalitaq “Igsi” Anderson is a guy from my original story Ittuatuq and I’ve written a few things for it but I never actually wrote anything with him, though I should Really Change That. he’s one of the main antagonists in the second book/season (I section off Ittuatuq into books/seasons cuz im insane), but over time he becomes part of the main protagonist cast instead.

so, backstory: Igsi grew up in Iqaluit, Nunavut. He lives with his mother and father, but also an anthropologist named Roland Lawrence who’s lived there most of Igsi’s life(not important now but later), and as he grew up he started getting into trouble with authority, even at a young age. at first it started with petty domestic stuff, like acting out for attention at home or teasing classmates, but over time it started really escalating into getting into trouble with the law with crimes like theft, trespassing, underage drinking cuz of good ol undiagnosed mental illness. he specifically starts running into trouble with one RCMP officer in particular, Officer Nakasuk.

so, Igsi obviously starts to form a grudge against him, and he starts to repeatedly antagonize the Officer specifically. in turn, the Officer and Igsi’s parents set him up with the Officer’s mother, who we just call Mentor. the Mentor starts Igsi on a very spiritual path towards healing and also lowkey teaching him about being a whole ass angakkuq in the hopes that this makes him stop being such a troubled kid. and while Igsi does actually get very, very interested in traditional spirituality and does end up liking the mentor and wanting to be a full-fledged angakkuq, his troubles with the law still get worse.

this all REALLY comes to a head just after he turns 18. the night Igsi gets released after a gruelling inpatient treatment that really left him frustrated, he and the Officer really come to a head. theyre alone and it’s a dark winter so they’re really saying like the shittiest things possible. one thing leads to another, Officer Nakasuk threatens Igsi with a stun gun, Igsi’s frustrations of being treated like shit for his entire life for things he never got Actual help for while being consistently incarcerated by the people who have authority over him finally overflows, and… oops! Igsi utilizes his angakkuq power andddd the Officer is dead.

THIS is where the dog coding really kicks in because it’s like. oh my god, he killed a person. he has fought and injured people, yes, but he has never actually killed someone. and he’s an adult, there is no juvie waiting for him, its Real Prison, and while he has hated the Officer for breaking his community apart, he’s still law enforcement. this shit is going to ruin him. so… he runs! he runs away with practically zero preparation, into the very dangerous tundra wilderness in the dead of winter. and he essentially just becomes a stray dog, living on scraps while a part of him desperately wishes he could return home and curl up in the lap of his parents, but he KNOWS he can’t do that.

but at the same time he refuses to believe that what he did was wrong. that he’s done what should have been done long ago, that he DESERVED to bite the way he did, because goddamn it, he was horribly oppressed by a system that was created to subjugate people like him, and he will never be the boy he was again, and isnt that enough to prove it was worth it? its during this exile that he really feels dejected by the entire world, from controlling human society and uncaring spiritual society, that he’s like Fuck it, whatever happens to me, i dont care, i will never follow anyone’s orders ever again.

anyway. hes about to die in the tundra due to hypothermia (lmao) when he encounters a spirit made of flame. this spirit is a tuurngaq, an auxiliary spirit that angakkuit can bond their souls to and gain extraordinary power, named Paliq. Paliq is a whole other can of worms lol but essentially, the two of them have very similar ideals in regards to authority and being controlled, so they make a deal: they can bond, Paliq will keep Igsi warm and protect him from then on, but in return Igsi cannot treat Paliq like a regular tuurngaq and they must act like a team, not with no orders or subordinates. which Igsi is like okay yeah perfect.

this however does Not solve the fact that Igsi is wanted and also starving OOPS. so one way or another, Igsi ends up returning to Iqaluit, and obviously he’s fucking arrested. and while Igsi and Paliq are planning to find a way to escape and leave the country (its a terrible plan), guess what. it’s that fucking anthropologist in the beginning didn’t expect THAT. and he’s like Listen Igsi. youre a good man if a bit misguided. I can get you out of this situation to the best of my ability, but in return you have to tell me about what your mentor has taught you, and also tell me about your new friend. because turns out, while this anthropologist joined Igsi’s family to study poverty and culture in Inuit families, he ended up getting really obsessed with the “lost” art of traditional angakkuit so now he wants access to it.

Igsi agrees, the court proceedings go surprisingly well bc Lawrence has the money to provide Igsi with a good lawyer, and Igsi gets off with manslaughter. so he still does time but like, better than second degree. and while Igsi has obviously lost the trust from his Mentor for killing her son, he still has a lot of angakkuit knowledge that he starts to provide for Lawrence, and while Lawrence is very careful to make the whole transaction seem very equal bc they’ve known each other for so long and he knows Igsi’s deal with authority, he basically has Igsi on a leash and is using him as a working dog isnt that FUCKED. I love it.

this goes on until “present day” in the story (which actually takes place in 2030 cuz im insane), where Igsi is finally off of prison. and Lawrence is like hey I’ve got word from two reputable angakkuuk (the protagonist’s, Piqati’s, parents) that theres actually a super small hamlet in the middle of buttfuck nowhere where a living god resides and is basically a bastion for power and spirits. come with me and we can go there and you can basically do whatever the fuck you want there forever and i get to pursue my studies (unlimited power but Igsi doesn’t know that). and Igsi is like Fuck Yeah let’s go.

SO. NOW HES LOOSE. he enters Ittuatuq and immediately starts antagonizing the fuck out of everyone in there, but especially Piqati and his friends. WHICH IS INSANE. BC THEYRE 18 YEARS OLDS WHO ARE STILL IN SCHOOL and at this point Igsi is 24 it’s like. he’s beefing with high schoolers and he’s very pathetic about that. But what i reallyyyy wanna focus on is his interaction with a certain character: Airaq, the VERY beloved bear deity of Ittuatuq.

HIS DYNAMIC WITH AIRAQ IS SOOO. RRAUURAGH if you love dog coding and religious doubt then this is it this is the place. at first Igsi starts pursuing Airaq because he’s kind of very into the whole challenge of getting with a deity and the fact that Airaq seems so pure and beloved on the outside. so it starts out with very casual flings and hook ups, but over time as the plot moves on Igsi starts getting really attached to Airaq and it’s like. oh shit. now all of a sudden he feels himself getting wrapped around a god’s finger, instinctively doing what Airaq says (the whole fucking “call your dog off” dynamic), and oh god, is this going against his ideals? what does it mean that he’s falling in love with a god?

so yeah. dog metaphors, religious metaphors, and crazy insane power dynamics all about. also stupid crazy faggot sex but thats not what you asked for and i wont embarrass myself elaborating here LMAO.

OKAY THIS GOT VERY LONG. and i could honestly do this for hours but this is, believe it or not, just a brief overview of him and i barely even got into the main plot. if you or anyone who is reading this wants anything more specific then please feel free to ask and ill go even deeper. god i really need to actually start writing him cuz im obsessed with him genuinely.

thank you for asking this if you read all of this my dear mutual sworcerie im kissing you square on the lips (or just high fiving you if that’s cooler)

(btw heres him all drawn by my gf)