Editing Lahja Ilvainen (section)

===Backstory Notes===

Lahja was born to a prestigious family of Finnish stock, her father being a distinguished military man who eventually entered politics and served the UN, while her mother was an accomplished biologist. The combination of the destruction caused by Second Impact, worsening weather conditions, a forced move from their home, and rising instability dealt many blows to the family's resources and influence, a fact which neither of them adjusted very well to. Anders gradually lapsed back into his military ways, running the household like a drill sergeant.  



It was during this time of dwindling influence and increasing unhappiness that Silja became indirectly involved with Gehirn, serving as an occasional consultant and assistant. While she was never told more than what she needed to know, over time these consultations led her to believe there was something special about children born after Second Impact. She shared this suspicion with Anders, and the two agreed that while it was a long shot without knowing what exactly was brewing, it was certainly a potential opportunity for them to use their daughter to improve their own fame at some point in the future. If nothing else, she'd be better equipped to survive in a harsher world.



Thus Anders took to training young Lahja in ways that would be considered abusive by most parents. The training wasn't purely physical. In one particular instance, which Lahja remembers above all others, her father gave her a kitten, which she named Ragnarok, leaving her to raise it more or less entirely on her own. Then ten years later, long after she'd formed a tight bond with it, he gave her a loaded gun and ordered her to shoot it. After a grueling ten minutes of battling her nerves and being shouted at and threatened she turned the gun on her father and pulled the trigger, shooting him twice in the chest. The shot, being aimed in haste, wasn't lethal. After significant medical care he stabilized, though one of his lungs would never be the same. Mentally he has yet to recover from it.  He lost his enthusiasm and interest in training Lahja. Whether he regards her, himself, the project itself or some combination as a failure was never clear.  



Silja, however, was pleased on some level, perhaps because she'd never been able to stand up to her husband to any degree of success. After the shooting Anders was a quiet and sullen man, and while still ill tempered, he'd turned most of it inward and kept to himself. From then her life settled into something resembling normal, but only for a short time. Ragnarok would soon die, presumably of natural causes. Months after this, after Lahja had recovered from the worst, she was being tested by NERV and was found to be a suitable pilot.


Lahja is a morbid girl. Having been exposed to images of graphic violence as well as stories of war and atrocities from a very early age, they're deeply ingrained into her psyche even if she's largely desensitized to such things. As such she can be prone to bringing up inappropriate topics and tends to dismiss anyone offended by it as weak. While she was raised as a soldier, she was also raised by rich, elitist parents. It may well be that the latter has ultimately had more of an impact on her than the former. While she certainly has valor, skill, and dedication befitting a soldier, some of her attitudes and views would likely exclude her from ever being a proper soldier. Somewhat manic depressive, albeit leaning heavily toward the manic end, and certainly overly cheerful about her new role with NERV, perhaps to an unhealthy degree. Prone to insomnia, which makes her irritable or withdrawn. When she sees herself as being "off duty" she can be whimsical and eccentric, often darkly so.