Niylah

Niylah is a recurring character in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons. She is portrayed by actress Jessica Harmon, and debuts in "Wanheda (Part 1)".

Niylah is a Grounder who ran a trading post with her father. She secretly traded supplies with Clarke during her self-exile, and later helped her escape the Ice Nation bounty hunters. After A.L.I.E.'s defeat she left the trading post and moved to Arkadia.

She sleeps with Clarke at the beginning of Season Three and again in Season Four. For six year she lived in the Second Dawn Bunker, and currently resides on Eligius IV.

Her people, Trikru, viewed her as a traitor because she lived with the Sky People. She remains as an emotional support to Clarke in Season 4. She is saved by Octavia before the Second Culling and becomes deeply loyal to her during the six years in the bunker.

In Season 5, Niylah is shown to be deeply loyal to Wonkru. When she finds out that Madi is born a Nightblood, she intends to tell Octavia, but gives Clarke one day to tell Octavia herself and goes up into space on Eligius IV.

Early Life
Niylah was born on Earth. She grew up with both her parents. However, at some point, her mother was captured and taken to Mount Weather as part of the Harvest Project leaving her with just her father. Niylah and her father are also members of Trikru.

Niylah ran a trading post with her father in the Trikru area near the Ice Nation border, known as Sector 7 by Arkadia. At one point they acquired one of the Delinquents' monitoring wristbands.

Throughout the Series

 * -|Season Three=

In Wanheda (Part 1), Niylah helps run a trading post with her father. Clarke waits for her father to leave before she arrives with a black panther she has recently killed in the woods to trade for supplies. Clarke and Niylah chat in Trigedasleng and Niylah offers her a drink. Clarke notices Niylah is wearing one of the Delinquents' wristbands. Clarke asks Niylah about how she got the wristband, but they are interrupted by Roan and another warrior looking for Clarke. Roan notices Clarke before asking if Niylah has seen the woman in a picture he is carrying around. Niylah tells Roan that Clarke was there two days ago and that is how she got the wristband but Clarke left to travel north, following "Eden's Path" into the Ice Nation. Roan and the other warrior leave to find Clarke. Clarke asks Niylah when did she figure out who she was and Niylah tells her since the beginning. Niylah switches to English and offers her a drink again while they wait for Roan and his companion to leave. Clarke asks why Niylah is helping her. Niylah reveals that her mother was taken by the Mountain Men and Clarke stopped the Reaping.

Niylah later helps Clarke clean the wounds she sustained while killing the panther. Niylah asks about the Mountain and Clarke says she did what she had to do. Niylah tells her she wiped out their greatest enemy by herself. Clarke kisses Niylah and they have sex.

Clarke later wakes up from a nightmare next to Niylah. She gets dressed and leaves the trading post, but is captured by Roan.

In Wanheda (Part 2), Niylah is seen being beaten and thrown around inside her trading post by Roan's partner. The Grounder wants to know where Wanheda, Clarke, is. However, Niylah refuses to give him any information. The Grounder pulls out a knife and says he will only ask once more, and then threatens to cut off her hand if she doesn't tell. Before she can answer, Bellamy, Kane, Monty, Hannah, Indra, and Pike enter the room. Bellamy shoots and kills the Grounder. Indra realizes that the Grounder was a bounty hunter. Indra then reassures Niylah that they are there to help and tells her that they are looking for Clarke, but she points out that he was, too, gesturing to the deceased bounty hunter. Niylah recognizes them as Skaikru, as Bellamy begs her to help them. Niylah ends up telling them that Clarke had been there last night, but that she was gone when she woke up. Kane asks Niylah if Clarke gave her any indication of where she was headed, and Niylah says she didn't but the bounty hunter did. Niylah then explains that the bounty hunter claimed that his partner from Ice Nation came back for her. She wishes them the best of luck before they leave.

In Nevermore, Clarke and the group need a wristband to fry A.L.I.E. from Raven's mind. So they go to Niylah and when she refuses to help them, Bellamy aims at her and violently tells her to let them in. Later, when possessed Raven reveals that Bellamy was the one who slaughtered her father, Niylah runs in and slaps Bellamy exposing their location to A.L.I.E.

After Raven is freed from A.L.I.E and the group is leaving, Clarke tells Niylah to stay safe from the AI and Octavia trades a lantern for a new outfit and Niylah nods.

In We Will Rise, she is seen after sleeping with Clarke. She insists that Clarke rest but Clarke says she needs to help bring the Hydrazine to Becca's Island for her mom and Raven. Niylah tells Clarke that Lexa would be proud of her and Clarke asks that she remain in Arkadia so she will be given nightblood once it's made.
 * -|Season Four=

In God Complex, she performs a grounder ceremony for those that died in the black rain.

In The Other Side, she is in the bunker sleeping quarters when Clarke walks in and they rest together.

In The Chosen, she is viewed as a traitor by Trikru because she was living with Skaikru, but most of the Sky People do not want her either and Geoff Hardy attempts to throw her outside when Octavia arrives stopping them and saves Niylah's life.

In a flashback in Red Queen, 46 days after Praimfaya, she comes to Thelonious Jaha in the bunks as he is finishing reading a story to Ethan Hardy, and asks him to help her fix the wheel on her cart. As Thelonious finishes Grounders barge in, Thelonious orders Niylah and Ethan to hide under a bed. The grounders then attack Thelonious.
 * -|Season Five=

In Damocles (Part 1), she is helping tend to the wounded and dead.

In Damocles (Part 2), she helps get everyone on board the Gagarin, before the valley is destroyed by the bomb and is put into cryosleep for 125 years.

In Sanctum, she is woken up from cryosleep after 125 years. She helps Abigail Griffin with Marcus Kane's surgery and is told wake up all of Skaikru except Octavia Blake to get their blood for a transfusion, however she rebels and wakes Octavia anyway.
 * -|Season Six=

Personality
Niylah is an observant and compassionate individual who falls for Clarke while she's on the run. She is also shown to not liking wars and conflicts, unlike most Grounders. While she has always been an outsider among her people, after her time in the Second Dawn Bunker she has become fanatically loyal to Wonkru and refuses to keep the fact Madi was born a Nightblood a secret from Octavia.

Physical Appearance
Niylah is of average female height and has long blonde hair that she keeps in a braid. She has hazel green eyes and has a black tattoo across her spine.

Relationships

 * -|Clarke Griffin=

Clarke Griffin
Niylah met Clarke when Clarke was hiding in Sector 7 after the fall of Mount Weather. Clarke waited for Niylah's father to leave every time before she brings Niylah her kills to trade for supplies. Niylah knows who Clarke is but keeps it a secret and protects her from Roan and other bounty hunters by lying about her whereabouts. Niylah helps treat Clarke's injuries. Later, that night they become intimate but, Clarke leaves her during the night.

Quotes

 * Niylah (to Clarke): "You killed our greatest enemy. You wiped them out by yourself."
 * -- in Wanheda (Part 1)

Notes and Trivia

 * Jessica Harmon is the sister of Richard Harmon, who plays John Murphy.
 * Niylah is one of the seven LGBTQ+ characters in The 100 canon; the other six characters are Clarke Griffin, Lexa, Costia, Bryan, Eric Jackson, and Nathan Miller.
 * Niylah's father was a Trikru warrior and one of the sleeping warriors massacred by Charles Pike, Bellamy Blake, Hannah Green, and seven others.
 * Niylah is Clarke's only lover to still be alive.
 * During the first half of Season Four, she resided in Arkadia. She is the second Grounder to do so. The first was Lincoln.
 * Since Roan died in Season 4, Niylah and Macallan are the only characters introduced in Season 3 to still be alive.
 * So far, Niylah has never directly or indirectly killed anyone.
 * Niylah is one of the friendly Grounders that presented on the show, she was kind to the Sky People, even though she was angry with them at one time when she found out that Bellamy was one of the Sky People that killed 300 Triku warriors including her father, but however, she later restored her relationship with them, possibly due to Pike's death and the incoming event of Praimfaya, although it is implied that she now understands how the Sky People felt.
 * In Wanheda (Part 1), even though she viewed Clarke as a hero for killing the Mountain Men, Niylah was unaware that Clarke killed many families in Mount Weather, including women and children. Niylah did not even know that Clarke killed many innocent civilians that have children with them.

Gallery

 * -|Season Three=