Difference between revisions of "Jasnah Kholin"

|profession={{cat tag|Scholars|HistorianVeristitalian}}

'''Jasnah Kholin''' is the queen of [[Alethkar]] on [[Roshar]].{{book ref|sa3|122}} She is a [[Surgebinder]] and [[Elsecaller]], with access to the [[Surge|Surges]]s of [[Transformation]] and [[Transportation]], called "Elsecalling." {{book ref|sa2|epilogue}} She is the sister of the late King [[Elhokar Kholin|Elhokar]], daughter of the late King [[Gavilar Kholin|Gavilar]] and [[Navani Kholin|Navani]], niece of Highprince [[Dalinar Kholin|Dalinar]], aunt of royal heir [[Gavinor]], and cousin to [[Adolin]] and [[Renarin]]. She is known widely as a brilliant scholar and for her denunciation of [[Vorinism]].{{book ref|sa1|3}} She is a member of the [[Veristitalian|Veristitalians]]s, an order of historians dedicated to reconstructing unbiased and factual accounts of the past in order to better understand the present.{{book ref|sa1|28}} She is training [[Shallan Davar]] as her [[ward]].{{book ref|sa1|8}}

Jasnah has a [[Nahel bond]] with the [[spreninkspren]] [[Ivory]] which gives her the ability to Surgebind.{{book ref|sa2|3}} She has access to the Surges of [[Transformation]] and [[Transportation]].{{book ref|sa1|72}} As with all Surgebinders, she has superhuman speed, strength and healing when she holds Stormlight. She has demonstrated her ability to Soulcast multiple times, as well as the power to enter and leave Shadesmar (the [[Cognitive Realm]]). She is in the process of becoming a [[Knights Radiant|Knight Radiant]] of the [[Order of Elsecallers]].

The Surge of Transformation allows Jasnah to use [[Soulcasting|Soulcast|]]. Jasnah can use Soulcasting in various ways with great precision, ranging from burning letters into a page,{{book ref|sa1|33}} to transforming boulders into smoke,{{book ref|sa1|5}} and even purifying Shallan's blood from a poison called backbreaker powder.{{book ref|sa1|50}} She also used Soulcasting as a very deadly weapon when she and Shallan were attacked by four footpads in Kharbranth and she Soulcast their assailants into fire, crystal and smoke.{{book ref|sa1|36}} They were even more dramatically demonstrated when she fought Odium's forces in the [[Battle of Thaylen Field]]. {{book ref|sa1|36}}{{book ref|sa3|118}} She has expressed that she is not very capable of Soulcasting organics and she was, indeed, unable to successfully Soulcast the strawberry jam that Kabsal brought to Shallan's hospital room.{{book ref|sa1|48}} ThoughIt tois bewidely fair,believed shethat hadher neverfailure tastedwas strawberrydue in herpart lifeto before,the which,fact withoutthat ashe doubt,had contributednever totasted her failurestrawberry.{{book ref|sa1|72}}

Jasnah was among the first to predict that the Parshendi were the Voidbringers and that the Desolation was coming,{{book ref|sa1|74}} along with organizations such as the [[Ghostbloods]] and the [[Diagram (literature)|Diagram]]. Until it was proven,{{book ref|sa2|81}} the theory relied heavily on metaphorical texts and folk tales, both thousands of years old and translated through many [[Wikipedia:Proto-language|proto-languages]].{{url ref|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-language|text=Proto-languages|site=Wikipedia|date=2006/01/27}}{{epigraph ref|sa1|32}}{{epigraph ref|sa1|35}}{{epigraph ref|sa1|38}} Her most substantial proof was the shadow, ash and flame references in her sources that she believed were refering to the red and black skin color of the Parshendi, as well as the reported sudden appearance of Voidbringers which she thought similar to the way the Parshendi assassinated her father, King Gavilar, apparently out of nowhere.{{book ref|sa1|72}} She also believed a Desolation was coming.{{book ref|sa1|74}}

Jasnah Kholin was born in {{Rosharan date|1139}} to Gavilar and Navani Kholin. Her brother, Elhokar, was born eight years later in {{Rosharan date|1147}}.{{book ref|sa1|12}} She became a princess of Alethkar when Gavilar united the [[highprince|highprinces]]s and became the king in {{Rosharan date|1163}}. At some point during her childhood (about {{Rosharan date|1150}}) Jasnah suffered from a case of lunacy.{{book ref|sa3|49}} When Jasnah reflects on this period of time, she remembers a dark room and screaming her voice ragged. According to her, this was when she learned that people she loved could still hurt her.{{book ref|sa3|47}}

SheJasnah wrotetranscribed Gavilar's account of his first meeting with the [[Parshendi]] in {{Rosharan date|1166}}.{{book ref|sa1|36}} She didn't know what to think of the changes in Gavilar around that time,{{book ref|sa1|15}} but forfelt theconnected first time into her life,father shefor feltthe connectedfirst to her fathertime.{{book ref|sa1|45}} She was very interested in studying the Parshendi and the [[Shattered Plains]], and wanted to study both. She suspected that the ruins in the Plains to bewere extremely important, and something that the scholars had been lookingsearching for said ruins for a long time.{{book ref|sa2|prologue}}

In {{Rosharan date|1167}}, Jasnah attended the feast that was held in the [[Kholinar]] Palace after the treatysigning withof the Parshendi was signedtreaty. While walking to a meeting with an assassin named [[Liss]] with the intention of havingkilling Elhokar's wife, [[Aesudan Kholin|Aesudan]], killed, she noticed her shadow behavingpointing oddlytoward whichthe discomforted herlight. She walked past Highprince [[Torol Sadeas|Sadeas]] and a [[Shinovar|Shin]] [[Szeth-son-son-Vallano|servant in white clothing]], and subsequently came across her father andin quiet conference with [[Meridas Amaram]] having a quiet conference. Once Amaram left, Jasnah asked Gavilar what he commanded Amaram, but Gavilar deflected the question and hastily left Jasnahhastily, leading her to wonder if he knew about her plans regarding Aesudan. Walking onwardsonward, Jasnah's shadow again acted oddly, and this time, formed into a "man-shaped oilyof blacknessmidnight blacknes [with] a certain reflective cast, as if he were made of oil."{{book ref|sa2|prologue}} He carried an unsheathed sword. In panic, Jasnah went into [[Shadesmar]] for the first time. In ShadesmarThere, the shadowy figure sheathed its sword in satisfaction, and Jasnah fell into the sea of glass beads. Before she drowned, Jasnah managed to find the glass bead corresponding to the Kholinar Palace, and using that as her guide, willed herself to rise to the surface., She stoodstanding uponon a platform made of glass beads locked together. From the beadsthere, she formed the corridor she'd stood in inbefore leaving the [[Physical Realm]], and when the shadowy figure stepped onto her platform with its sword drawn, she formed a statue of [[Talenel|Talenelat'Elin]]. She confronted the figure, and it saluted herand bybowed, raisingthen two fingers to its head and bowingleft. After this,When Jasnah returned to where she was in the Physical Realm, to findall the spheres lining the hallway walls ofwere thedun. hallway without [[Stormlight]].{{book ref|sa2|prologue}}

SheJasnah managed to compose herself, and hurried to her appointmentmet with Liss. Once there, shebut decided not to go through with assassinatingassassinate Aesudan, and instead orderedordering Liss to take a job as one of Aesudan's maids, and watchsurvey her only. Once the meeting was concluded, Jasnah asked Liss about the servant Lissshe wanted to show off, but Liss answered that she had sold her Shin servant to a slaver weeks ago for being too good a servantslave. Hearing that the servant was Shin, Jasnah recalled the servant in white clothing she'd seen earlier, and decided to checklook into him.{{book ref|sa2|prologue}}

WhileJasnah gettinghesitated backin returning to the party, theafter musicshe comingheard fromthe abovemusic stopped,in leadingthe Jasnahdining tohall wonder if the party wasstop overabruptly. She ran into two "ambassadors from the west, and was made uncomfortable by": the one with a silverthe birthmark on his right cheek. Abruptlywas [[Nale|Nalan]],{{book screamsref|sa2|99}} replacedand wherehis thecompanion beatis ofwidely drumsbelieved hadto soundedbe [[Kalak]], anddeduced after process of elimination.{{url ref|url=https://www.tor.com/2014/06/12/words-of-radiance-reread-prologue/|text=Words of Radiance Reread: Prologue|site=Tor.com|date=2014/6/12}} Jasnah immediatelyheard sudden screams and ran toward them, fearing for her family's safety. The sounds led to her father's chambers, and the way was littered with corpses with burned eyes and the walls marked by [[Shardblade]] cuts. She eventually reached a balcony and saw her father in his [[Shardplate]], called to him and made him hesitate. The balcony broke beneath Gavilar, and Jasnah saw the servant she'd seen before fall down with her father. The Shin man somehow changed direction in the air, and fell onto the wall, completely ignoring gravity. While crying to herself, Jasnah was approached by three Parshendi, [[Klade]], [[Gangnah]] and [[Varnali]]. They took responsibility for the assassination, and told Jasnah they were sorry for her loss but explained that Gavilar was abouthad to dobe somethingstopped veryfrom doing something dangerous. andIt hadis now known that Gavilar, as a [[Sons of Honor|Son of Honor]], was trying to bebring stoppedback the Parshendi gods in the hopes that the [[Knights Radiant]] would return, reinstating the dominance of the Vorin church.{{book ref|sa3|prologue}}{{book ref|sa2|88}} Sadeas stumbled in, saw what happened, and ran toward Gavilar's corpse, withwhere histhey guards.{{bookfound ref[[Szeth|sa2|prologue}} They found aSzeth's]] note to Dalinar nearwritten in Gavilar's corpseblood, sayingtelling thathim Dalinar mustto find the most important [[Immortal Words|words]] a man could say,.{{book thatref|sa2|prologue}} sheJasnah later discovered that this was a direct quote from [[The Way of Kings (in-world)|''The Way of Kings'']] by [[Nohadon]].{{book ref|sa1|15}}

Hours later, they discovered that the assassinationadmission and the surrender of thethose three of the [[Council of Five]] covered the escape of the rest of the Parshendi in the palace. Dalinar sent aseveral hundredfailed cavalryexpiditions after them,the butescapees. theyAfter were killedrefusing to thedivulge lastinformation, man and horse. Thethe three Parshendi didn't say anything more, and were all hanged. Jasnah interrogated theLiss survivingand the King's guards and Liss about the Assassin in White, butto gotno almostavail, nothing.and Next,for shethe startednext lookinghalf-decade throughwould the booksturn to explain[[The whatWay sheof hadKings/Epigraphs#Jasnah's Notes|ancient books]] seenfor thather nightanswers.{{book ref|sa2|prologue}}

Despite what she was told, Shallan came to Jasnah's alcove and claimed that the Soulcaster Jasnah wore was a fake and she could Soulcast without a fabrial. Jasnah initially tried to deny this, but she was shocked to see Shallan reveal a depiction of [[Shadesmar]]. Shallan told Jasnah that she'd stolen the Soulcaster fabrial on the night when Jasnah killed the four footpads and that she could Surgebind as well. When Jasnah didn't believe her, Shallan entered Shadesmar with a dim sphere to prove her claim. Jasnah followed her and brought her back, admonishing her for being an idiot in trying to enter Shadesmar with only a dim sphere. Shallan asked Jasnah to teach her and that she wanted to be a part of Jasnah's studies. Jasnah was reluctant at first, but eventually accepted her with the promise that she would never lie to Jasnah or steal from anyone ever again.{{book ref|sa1|70}} She went on to telling Shallan about Surgebinding, Knights Radiant, and her theory about the Parshendi and the Voidbringers. When Shallan told her that she saw [[cryptic|cryptics]]s, Jasnah said there were two orders of the Knights Radiants with the ability to Soulcast, and that the two women belonged to different orders. Jasnah showed Shallan her notes regarding the Voidbringers,{{book ref|sa1|72}} and like Jasnah, Shallan came to the conclusion the Parshendi were Voidbringers. Jasnah was pleased to have convinced at least one person. She said that they needed more information, but she had exhausted all that Kharbranth had to offer and that they would leave for the Shattered Plains the next day. Jasnah told her that there were others after this information, and that the [[Ghostbloods]] were one of them. She then showed Shallan the symbol of the Ghostbloods that she had found tattooed on Kabsal. Shallan was horrified to recognize the symbol, and told Jasnah that her father might have had been a member of this group.{{book ref|sa1|74}} Jasnah hired Captain [[Tozbek]] and the ''[[Wind's Pleasure]]'' to take her and Shallan to the Shattered Plains, and the two women departed Kharbranth.{{book ref|sa2|1}}