The Island of Crete

Crete is a fan-made supporting character for the anime/manga series Hetalia: Axis Powers, or Hetalia: World Series. She represents the Island of Crete- a former country-turned-state after falling under Ottoman Rule. Her official birthday is December 1st, the day when the Cretan deputies unilaterally declared a union with Greece, thus freeing the Island from Turkish Rule in the year 1913.

Katarina Karpusi, or Kat, as she's known by close friends and family, is the younger sister of Heracles Karpusi, and is the half-sister of both Lovino and Feliciano Vargas. She is younger than both Heracles and Lovino, but older than Feliciano.

Appearance:

Crete is a medium-tall girl appearing in her late teens to early twenty's. She is fairly athletic with a slim hourglass figure. Crete has dark brown hair, and a fair to light olive skin tone. The double curl on her head falls to the right side of her face, rather than in the center like her brother's. Her eyes are largely portrayed as a deep green, however when she is upset flecks of gold or hazel can be seen in them. Because of the Ottoman's conquering and oppressing of both Greece and Crete for many years, she did not begin to physically age until after Crete declared a union with her brother-possibly due to not having a real chance for her country to grow beyond that point. Because she lives on an Island and wasn't seen often, many of the country's remembered her as having the body of a child for a long time. As a child, Crete had short, almost pixie-cut hair, however the curl on her head was left relatively long, and fell to the right side her head, rather than the left as Heracles's does. Normally she dresses casually, often just wearing clothes she's borrowed from one of her brother's wardrobes- however when she wants to she can dress nicely, having gotten some tips from her fashion-savvy brothers over the years, ((especially since the incident with that ONE dress.)) Recently she is growing her hair out long, after a comment Wales made that she may have an easier time making more friends among the other female countries if she looked "less boyish."

Personality and Interests:
Despite having a very laid-back and casual appearance, Crete is smart and resourceful, however she is an extremely sarcastic, sassy, and opinionated young woman who fights for what she believes in when necessary, although she would rather observe from the sideline and watch the goings on most of the time. Crete is not afraid to speak up when something bothers her, and values her freedom as a person above all. She cares deeply for those she is attached to, and will not only protect them but stand by their side through thick and thin. Her dry humour is often weaved into her conversations, unless they require a more serious tone. At times, she shows a more playful and fun-loving side, however around strangers she is a little shy and distant until she gets to know them.

Crete was born premature, and often was sick as a child due to Newborn Anemia. Normally, most baby's will go through anemia within 6 to 9 weeks after birth. A Premature baby however becomes anemic sooner than a normal child, because they have fewer red blood cells, and these blood cells are broken down faster-the affects of the anemia also last longer than a child who was carried full term. Premature infants also lose blood faster due to frequent blood tests. When she was under the Ottoman Empire's control, Crete often had to remain in her room on bedrest because of this. She was isolated from her brother and other children for a long time because of Ottoman's worry she would get sick if she went out, so Crete was confined to her room for a large part of her childhood, having only been allowed out onto the balcony of her rooms or certain parts of Turkey's house under Turkey's strict supervision. This didn't stop her from trying to sneak out however. Even today she regularly takes Iron supplements, as she still suffers from Anemia time and again.

Like her brother, Crete is often seen with cats, as a reference to Greece's stray cat population- however Crete is also known to be home to a large variety of rare and endangered species and ancient ruins. She also loves naps, and her hobbies include drawing, philosophy, reading, history, music, sports, video games and dancing. She is shown to also be a good cook, although she claims her brothers are better. One odd trait is that she collects many different types of guns and rifles, and stores them around the house or in her basement. ((something that was done by many Greek family's during the war, in case they needed protection.))

Having grown up largely around men, Crete has a hard time introducing herself to other girls, and often becomes embarrassed or nervous around them. Despite this, she tries hard to introduce herself when she can, out of a desire for friendship, but because of her role in WWII, many of the country's feared her for a time, unbeknownst to Crete. She has a great respect for Hungary, whose strong personality she admires, and would like to befriend the older nation one day.

Relationships:
Greece:As Greece is her older brother, Crete looks up to him the most and views him as someone she can always trust, he is also a sort of parent-figure to her in the current timeline-however the two didn't start out that way. While Greece knew of his sister when he was young, Crete grew up in Turkey's care believing she was an only child. The siblings didn't actually meet face to face until shortly before the union that separated Crete from Turkey, Crete having no idea Heracles was in fact her brother before then. Because of the Ottoman's control over both of them, they were separated for many years, scarcely knowing of each other's existence. It took some time for them to get to know each other and learn that they could depend on one another. While they have butted heads in the past over politics and agriculture, at the end of the day one or the other calls a truce. As siblings they get along amazingly well overall and watch out for each other, although Crete has commented that while she does consider him her best friend and loves him as much as a sister can, that at times Greece can be overprotective. Being not only a natural fishing port, but also one of the most agricultural places in Greece, Crete has little need for outside trade-However she regularly supplies her brother with goods to export and trade, and also helps other nations who are trying to import their goods to Greece.

Cyprus: Like her brother, Crete looks up to Cyprus-and respects him in the same way she respects Greece. Since he was raised by her and Greece's mother, she often is torn between asking him about her and worrying that it is a touchy subject, since Greece never mentions her to Crete. She will often go to him when she has a problem, but isn't sure how to broach the subject with Greece.

TRNC: The two have a rather complicated relationship- Crete doesn't hate TRNC as much as Greece, however she does not respect him for choosing to stay with Turkey instead of living with Cyprus, his own brother, either. Crete recognizes that TRNC is Cyprus's brother, and if anyone should worry over his welfare it is him. However, she cannot understand why the young boy chooses to live with Turkey, but is not so upset with him that she is threatening to disown Cyprus over it however, unlike Greece often does. Crete does not do many dealings with TRNC because of Heracles's feelings about the boy's living conditions-and because she fears that he views her as a potential enemy to Turkey for siding with Greece during the revolution. However there are times that she would like to speak to him and get to know the young boy.

Turkey:To put it mildly, Crete's relationship with Turkey is a very strained one. Turkey took Crete under his control very much in the same way as he took Greece after the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. She remained under his control until the 19th century, after Greece won the war for independance and the siblings declared the unilateral union. Crete is aware that as far as Turkey's conquered territories go, she didn't have it so bad. But it is in large part due to the Ottoman Empire that she lost her title as a nation at a young age. Greece's theory is that the Ottoman Empire went to great lengths to keep his little sister alive because, out of the four siblings, she physically resembles their mother the most. The years spent in isolation in Turkey's house made her come to realize quite early as a child that he was in fact a captor, not a caretaker. Because of this she learned to fear his presence, and often is seen jumping into either a guarded or fighting stance when he enters the room. While she does allow tourists from around the world to visit her lands, she does not do any trade with Turkey before alerting and consulting Heracles, who is always present at such meetings. About the only time they can get along is when music is playing and they stop what they are doing to dance. Interestingly enough, Crete does not recognize Turkey without his mask, as he always wore it around her as a child. On the rare occasions they do cross paths and he is not wearing his trademark mask, she actually acts polite towards him, thinking he is a visiting civilian. Like Greece, she will get into fights with him over TRNC-but more so because she feels that the young nation should be with his own brother, rather than Turkey.

North & South Italy:Feliciano and Lovino are Crete's half brothers through her mother. Because of this she tries hard to get along with them-although like Greece she cannot always read their actions. They met not long after Crete was taken from Turkey by Greece and returned home. She gets along with Lovino especially well, since they have a similar sense of humor and Lovino opens up around her more. She's also the one he often confides in when one of his "Revenge Plots" against Germany goes wrong. Crete also helped Lovino purchase olive oil from Spain when he was sick, even though she didn't really need it, having her own olive trees. Because of this surplus of oil she wound up selling a large part of it to the Netherlands and Switzerland. Crete also is one of the people who encouraged South Italy to work harder, and often brought him meals when he was working. No matter how busy she is, Crete always makes time for the brothers whenever they stop by to visit. Because of Italy's attempt to assist Germany in invading Greece, relationships between Feliciano and Crete were strained for some years. In present day, Crete would like to get to know Feliciano more, and if possible learn about their grandfather from him, but because they live far apart it's hard to get to see each other.

Japan: Crete gets along well with Japan, due to his friendship with her brother and their countries relationship. The fact that both share a love for cats is an added bonus. Crete has also taken traditional fighting lessons from Japan in the past, having shown an interest in martial arts.

England, North & Southern Ireland, Wales, & Scotland: The UK assisted both Crete and Greece during the Greek war of Independence, this earned England and his family both Crete and Greece's respect. On May of 1941, during World War II, a battalion of the allied troops were trapped on the Island of Crete along with civilians when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete. Many of these stranded soldiers were from the UK. In return for their nation's help in the past, Crete looked after the soldiers and made sure they had a place to stay and were fed, despite already having her hands full with both wounded soldiers from her brother's army and civilians to look after. With the allied troops and civilians help, they defended the island, buying enough time to temporarily stop the German invasion from entering Greece. Because Crete took much of the damage in order to defend their soldiers for those ten bloody days, England as well as his brothers have always had respect for Crete since that time- and became some of her closest friends and allies after the war. Crete is also one of the few souls willing to step into the middle of their many "sibling arguments" to break up a fight when it gets out of hand. She is closest to England and Wales, as the three have similar interests and get along when together. At one point in time, she had a crush on Scotland-however came to realize that, like the rest of his siblings, she thought of him more as family than a romantic interest-and never told him about her feelings for fear of ruining their friendship. England was aware of this at the time, and even though he strongly dissapproved of Crete's feelings for his brother, since he knew how violent his brother could be and given their past arguements, swore to secrecy never to mention it after seeing how upset Crete was when she thought she liked him. Both Crete and the UK siblings often play cards or video games together on weekends, or just get together for a night out to drink and have fun. Crete also makes sure they have one of the best hotels to stay at when any of the brothers visit for political reasons, and is always eager to hear their various stories over a cup of tea. England is also the one who first introduced her to the holiday of Halloween. England took her shopping for a costume and held a special halloween party at his house just so Crete could experience the holiday, as Greeks don't celebrate it. Instead Greece celebrates Apokries, festival which takes place in February before lent, which is based largely off of masquerading and pranks. She still keeps the costume in the back of her closet- and will usually wear it whenever she slips over to his house to celebrate with England and his family. When asked about their relationship, Crete often describes them as either her best of friends or jokes that they are her "family away from my family," because of the amount of time that they spend together.

Netherlands & BelgiumCrete gets along surprisingly well with the normally solemn Netherlands. Since they both are in the trade business, they will often haggle on things for fun. Crete respects him for fighting Turkey over the title of "The Tulip Country," and is also one of the few who knows his love for romantic poems- and will often discreetly trade these sorts of stories with him for something she or her brother needs, as both Greece and Crete have many authors who write on the subject. She is unaware of his attraction to younger girls, so often wonders why her brother gets irritated when she tells him she's going to trade with the Northern country.

Belgium on the other hand she is a little shy around to this day. As stated, growing up around so many men, Crete has little to no experience when it comes to dealing with other female nations in the Hetalia world. Even though she recognized Belgium as a kind person, she found her presence intimidating because she did not know how to interact with other girls, and became flustered when trying to speak to her-which Belgium found amusing, as it reminded her of how Lovino got flustered as a child. It is because of Belgium however that Crete was reunited with her other brothers, and got to know both Lovino and Feliciano. Because of this, Crete looks up to Belgium and greatly respects her-and is slowly becoming more comfortable with talking to the other woman.

France:Crete and Francis's relationship is fairly neutral-and seems to revolve around a mutual respect for each other. As he deals with Greece more than her, she does not see him often, however the two get along well enough when they are in a room together. After she was freed from Turkey's domain, France would bring her toys and play with her while Greece dealt with politics. The one time he did try to seriously hit on her, she reminded him that he had acknowledged Feliciano as his little brother. Since she was Lovino and Feli's sister, that made them family by relation-and he had no right to hit on her. Since then she's rarely had to worry about the Frenchman coming onto her, and will often joke with him when he does-mostly to annoy her brother as she knows France is never serious with her since that time.

Switzerland:Switzerland is one of the countries that largely supported Greece and Crete during the Greek war of Independance. Because of this, Greece, Crete, and Switzerland have a long tradition of relations and get along well together. During WWII it was Switzerland who represented the interests of numerous countries in occupied Greece and Crete. Even though their trading leans more into Switzerland's favor than the Greeks, Switzerland does supply the siblings with many pharmaceutical and medical supplies, as well as clocks, watches, luxury goods, and certain types of food they themselves cannot produce. In turn, the main goods traded to Switzerland are food and beverages, chemicals, construction materials, and textiles. Despite their good relations however, Crete has never met Switzerland's sister-although she will listen to him when he speaks about her.

Germany & Prussia:The relationship between Crete and the German brothers is a long and complicated one-about as complicated as her relationship with Turkey, if not more so. The first King of Independent Greece, Otto I, was of German decent. Greece and Prussia also established diplomatic relations in 1834-and traded with each other for a time as well as had immigrants move on both sides. During both World Wars however, the two countries were fierce enemies- Germany being the leading member of the Axis powers, and Greece eventually siding with the Allied forces after Germany threatened him and Crete. When both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany planned on invading Greece, it was Crete who had been proclaimed the official base of the Greek naval force, and was given the task of shielding her brother, as well as the mainland, from any off-shore invasions made by the two, much to the surprise of everyone-as it was assumed by the vast majority that Greece was entering the war to keep HER safe. It was also Crete's job to deliver supplies to the Allies via boats. When she was given the order to defend the mainland it was revealed that she has a large variety of weapons, mostly guns and rifles, hidden in her basement. On May 20th. of 1941, During World War II, Nazi Germany launched an air borne invasion of Crete under the code-name "Unternehem Merkur," or "Operation Mercury." Because Crete was not only the "trade port" of Mediterranean Europe, but a foot hold into Greece, Crete was targeted early on by Germany's boss, who believed that they could gain control of Greece through capturing her. After one day of fighting Crete however, the Germans suffered heavy losses. Both Crete and the Allied troops were confident that they could win- however a slip-up in communications and the failure of the Allied commanders' ability to grasp the situation wound up costing Crete the Melame airfield in the Western part of the Island. This allowed the Germans to eventually fly in reinforcements and overwhelm the defenders. Even though Crete lost the battle it was recognized as one of the longest fights in the entire war, as Crete fought the brothers for ten days largely by herself. This battle was also recognized as being unprecidented in three aspects: It was  not only the first time that German Paratroops were used in the field on a massive scale, but also the first time an invasion by Germany was mainly air-based, as their troops had no chance on the water. It was also the first place where the Allies made significant use of intelligence gathered by Crete soldiers of the German Enigma code, and it was the first time German troops encountered mass resistance from a civilian population. It is also recognized as an important battle because of the heavy casualties suffered by German Paratroopers on Crete, who were still largely vulnerable to Crete's military guns while in the air. Because of this Germany's boss forbade any more large-scale airborne operations afer that.

As Germany, Crete, and Greece are all members of the EU present day, they do have to trade and deal with one-another from time to time. During the European soverign-debt crisis, relations were strained once again. When Greece was sick from this crisis, it was oftentimes Crete who would meet with Germany to discuss what to do. As she has not had much interaction with either of the Beilschmidt brothers since the war, for a time it was very awkward between them-but it seems they have talked things out. Crete also took this opportunity to learn more about both Ludwig and Gilbert, as she wanted to know why Feliciano spent so much time near them. Currently, they are on good terms. It is believed that Crete would probably get along very well with Prussia if they spent more time together, as the two both have a great love for music and pranks. She's also baby sat Gilbird on several occasions, preparing a room specifically for the little bird away from all the cats at her house.

Ancient Greece:Ancient Greece is the Birth Mother of Modern Greece, Crete, and Southern Italy. It is hinted that both Greece and Crete's birth father is in fact Rome. Crete was still an infant when her mother died, so she never got a real chance to know her.

Trivia Time: One little known fact about Katarina is that she is a great singer, and like her brother-loves dancing when she hears music. Her prized possession that she loves to play is an Ibanez guitar England and Wales bought for her as a christmas gift, after learning she had grown to like their modern rock and metal music. She will often perform in taverns around Crete or in a public square. What earnings she makes from her performances she usually donates to someone who needs it, only keeping a little for herself from time to time.

***Author's note of D00M: 

''*I am sadly in no way associated with the Creator of Hetalia or the anime. Crete is my OC. All information I researched about the different relations between Crete and the aforementioned Countries can be found online or in your average world history textbook. Alterations were made so that this character would have an active role in these stories. I do not make any profits off of this page, neither do I expect any. All I wanted was to create a backstory for this character-Also, I did not unfortunately draw any of the pictures used here. Due to an incident at work I have overstrained my drawing hand, and cannot unfortunately draw for the time being. All pictures are courtesy of photobucket. I respect the rules of Wikia and hope to make friends here. Please contact me for anything regarding this character. Thank you. ~ <3 Fall3nD0ll.''