You don’t hear his name anymore in Ashland: even when he was alive, the shift from Ashlandic to English as the standard language had already made Sviats’ name an obscurity. But, perhaps Sviats would’ve wanted it that way. Never one to have desired the attention of others, Sviats’ life in rural Mersedele passed by like so many others in the days before the war: working alongside his family as they struggled to sustain themselves, helping his neighbors whenever and however he could. 

Nothing survives from Sviats or his family in the modern day. In fact, had it not been for the discovery of a secret stash of Kodachrome slides in the del Boranns’ family collection, no one would’ve known Sviats existed at all. One of the dozens of unidentified faces in the collections, the story of Sviats Strazds begins with the question of how he (of all people) brushed shoulders with the likes of Modris Valerins and Emils Pertinaks, during the early days of the White Stripes movement. The answer? Well…let’s just say that has the power to totally destroy the narrative Ashland has told itself over the past century. 

The sketchbook doesn’t lie: appearance-wise, Sviats has hardly changed since his inception in late 2015. The same cannot be said, however, for his personality and behavior. Originally created as the ringleader of a ragtag resistance group, the early narrative iterations of Sviats portray a brooding, taciturn young man who treated those around him with an icy indifference. (In fact, his personality was so unbecoming one of my college writing professors deemed him to be “a jerk”.) After brushing him off in late 2024, Sviats today is noticeably friendlier and more empathetic than in years past–if still hesitant to talk much.

This complete character turnaround wasn’t totally unprecedented. Between 2017 and 2020, I conducted the first serious research into the Latvian struggle for independence during World War II, with Modris Eksteins’ Walking Since Daybreak being particularly helpful in understanding the political and moral climate much of the resistance was borne out of. From this, Sviats evolved into a leader in the throes of a moral quandary: trying his best to reconcile his personal rectitude with the acts of violence his group committed in the name of political justice and freedom. Personal accounts from soldiers who served during the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and the Iraq War further developed Sviats’ emphasis on helping ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire of war–not to mention his horror at the human cost of war and resistance.

Sviats’ name is made up…sort of. I first encountered it in the form “Sviatoslav” while taking a course on early Russian history during my freshman year of college; the name belonged to a 10^th-century warrior prince of the Russian steppe, and it loosely translated to “blessed and holy leader of the Slavs”. When Auseklis burst onto the scene shortly after (and this character was created), I truncated “Sviatoslav” to just “Sviat” to retain the meaning “blessed and holy”, then added the -s at the end to conform to the masculine suffix used in the Latvian language. Hence, “Sviats”. (Coincidentally, in the Latvian language, the word for “blessed” is svetīts.)

Up until recently, I didn’t realize Sviats’ name sounded similar to the Latvian word sviests, meaning “butter”. Due to this coincidence, I intend to have Emils sarcastically call Sviats “Sviests”, as a running joke throughout the Civil War arc.

Sviats’ doll was created by my aunt in 2016. His current outfit was sewn by me in September 2024 (though, he and the Carey doll currently share a coat). 

Songs whose lyrics and/or melody call to mind scenes involving Sviats; character development and beliefs; or general moods and themes from over the years.

Emils

Ilvars

Madara

Modris