Anja is a Brythunian, captured as a child in one of many Turanian slave raids. She was exhaustively trained by Ahmet the Golden, the most reputed Turanian trader, and sold to a great Kothian lord as a dancing slave. She found a way to flee her captivity, and traveled further west, trying to get as far away from Turan as possible. That was a bad idea, as she was captured and brought to Argos, where blonde Brythuanians fetch high prices.

She has spent nearly six months at the villa of Alfonso DeStoffa, a wealthy merchant. Perhaps because she's an expensive import, her life in Messantia has been incredibly pleasant, a far cry from the cruelty of her former, Kothian master. She could have escaped the villa earlier, probably, but after all, she is a strange land, it is risky... and for her standards, she is pampered like a princess, dressed in fine silks, fed the loveliest meals, and she just has to dance a little for it from time to time... She's had much worse.

Anja has the body of an acrobat, with the blonde hair, green eyes and pale skin of the Brythunians, usually dressed in a dancer's set of red silk loincloth and brass bra.