KrisyaOhana

When I was in fifth grade, I had a librarian who refused to put any of my words on the “word wall.”

The word wall was made up of words, that we as students used to describe the books we had to read in order to put a word up on the wall. I never told anyone that the librarian at the time had decided that my words were less important than the words of the other kids in my class.

I never talked about the fact that she deliberately reminded me that because I was brown, I deserved less than my whiter counterpart students.

So I went home and I created my own word. Over the years the word has changed and evolved to mean many different things, in many different ways, but it is at the core, the evolution of my spirituality as a woman.

I decided to break down the history of the KrisyaOhana with the definitions listed below.

This word means everything to me, it is a five-syllable word split in half by the pronunciation but not the spelling.

Why? because it’s my word and I designed it that way.

Krisya Ohana is also the name of the secret society that I have been writing about since I was about five or six years old. I grew up telling myself stories largely because I didn’t have a lot of friends. Krisya Ohana became my invisible one true friend, filled with Angels, Guardians, and Challengers.

This website is built on the bones of the fictional writing that I grew up telling myself so that I would feel less lonely in the world.

Krisya Ohana became my safe place and my shield against the world, something that I kept largely to myself. It’s something that I still hold to myself, that I refuse to share with anyone that may not seem like they could understand.

To understand why it means so much to me, you have to understand the etymology of the word.

• Kris – this word is pronounced in two very different ways. The first one is pronounced “Chris” after my brother Christopher, and Cree for the Cree people of Alberta, Canada, where I was born and raised until I was thirteen years old.
• Kris as a whole word pronounced “Cree” represents the female version of Christ, or Mary Magdalena, who I have always believed was his wife, contrary to the Catholic teachings.
• Kris as “Chris” is also the same word that Roma uses to refer to a yearly event in which the various Roma tribes gather to settle disputes and celebrate.
• Krisya represents women specifically and is a matriarchal society in which Women specifically are the spiritual and governmental leaders of the community.
• Ya stands for the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, which is one of my all-time favorite stories because let’s face it Sandra Bullock is amazing.
• Ohana is from the Samoan word for “Ohana” meaning “family.” In the instance of Krisya, it represents stability, roots, and security. Which is what family means.

The society of Krisya Ohana is a stationary tribe of Roma Gypsy’s that are spread out across the globe. They have special powers and abilities that come from the fact that they are descended from Ancient beings now known as Gods, Guardians, Goddesses.

Some call them Fae, others call them Witches, but whatever you decide to call them they are superior to humankind because of their abilities. They live much longer and are deeply connected to the element, but especially the earth.

They have a royal based system, with the heads of states being referred to as Royalty. In the human world, they present as Diplomats for the Krisya Roma people, but they absolutely do not interfere with human politics.

They are among some of the world’s most wealthy people, though just like the human world they deal with issues of poverty, addiction, and mental health. The “Queens” live in several places around the globe, but usually have only one “Castle” or a home base from which they govern.

In Vancouver, British Columbia, for instance, it is Her Royal Highness Madgeta Monteque rules over the Krisya people throughout Canada.

In the US there is another, in Iraq another, and so on and so forth. Each of the Queen’s has their personal missions that receive their special focus and attention.

They gather once every three years to discuss various Krisya Ohana business and to share what they have learned during their separation. These events are highly private and involve a ton of security because that’s how I bloody well wrote it.

The annual festival is held in a different host city each year, and each year a different group of tribes is invited. For instance if you were invited in 1993, you were not invited in 1996, and so on.

This is to ensure that no one tribe receives too much attention from the Queens, but also and more importantly to ensure that no one tribe has too much access to any particular Royal.

Each Royal travels with a various amount of specialized protectors called Guardians, who have largely spent their lives training for the opportunity to serve the Crown.

A Guardian trains for more than fifteen years before they are allowed to serve any of the Royals. Largely with human governments in various ports around the globe. Their services are highly valued by gojer or outsiders, because of the skills amassed while training.

The Royal in charge will always pass her crown down to the firstborn daughter, or closest possible blood relative. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Royal families go back hundreds of thousands of years, and they have an archive called the Kris Archives – I know incredibly clever there. The Archives contain hundreds of years of information including genealogy samples to prove their image. Only a select few of Krisya will ever see or even be on the same continent as the records.

Their society mirrors the human one, largely because the system of government that gojer’s use is based on the society of Krisya Ohana. They have Mayors, Presidents, and Diplomats who work around the world to protect the interests of the secret society.

Guardian’s do not just protect the Royal families, they also ensure the safety of the Krisya people by  working with gojer cops, “undercover.” When a Krisya is murdered or has a problem that might require the help of the RCMP or Police, it will be a member of Krisya that shows up to the scene of the crime.

The Krisya Ohana Code is to protect their own at all costs, even at the risk of a gojer life. That is not a code that my main character Siddha Lee Saint James subscribes to – which is a nod to the television show Lost Girl.

Unlike the show Lost Girl, there is no light and there is no dark, there is merely the Krisya Ohana.

They live through the world mostly at night, and travel almost exclusively by train or by boat but never by plane, lest they tempt the Gods…also I’m fucking terrified of flying and that seems like a cool detail to add.

They have Witches, Doctors, Nurses, Teachers, Politicians and Businessmen, and women.

Their Soldiers experience some of the most elite training around the world, and as such deal a lot with PTSD from being forced to take lives on the battlefield. There is nothing that Kris values more than that of another living creature.

This is not to say that they are vegetarian however, it just means that they are respectful of the food that comes to their plate, meat, or otherwise.

The Krisya Ohana are gentle people unless pushed to their breaking point. They do not engage in relationships outside of their particular tribe, because only a Kris can understand what it means to live in the shadows.

They will absolutely go to war for those that they love, however, that being said violence is always a last resort in their world. It would not be wise to take on a member of the Kris society because the chance is likely that you will have to deal with many more. They have long memories and are not very good at being “forgiving.”

They align themselves according to the elements under which they were born, the kind of majick they practice will almost always be dictated by the aforementioned element alignment.

As more of this world becomes clear to me you can find the details here. Throughout this website, you will find information on some of the characters I have written into the Krisya Ohana Society. If you would like to meet some of them you can do so by hitting this link and checking out their magazine which is updated when I feel like it.

Sending all my love,

Devon J Hall, Wyrdsmith