Jasnah Kholin: Complete Character Guide

Jasnah Kholin is the scholar, Elsecaller and eventual Queen of Alethkar in The Stormlight Archive. Daughter of King Gavilar and Navani, she is an open atheist, a historian and Shallan’s mentor, bonded to the inkspren Ivory. This guide covers her powers, her arc across all five books and what comes next. Spoilers through Wind and Truth.

Who is Jasnah Kholin?

Jasnah Kholin is the eldest child of King Gavilar and Navani Kholin, born in 1139, eight years before her brother Elhokar, according to Coppermind’s timeline. She is Dalinar’s niece, cousin to Adolin and Renarin, and widely regarded as one of the most brilliant scholars on Roshar. Coppermind notes that many believe she would already hold the cap of a master scholar if she had not publicly denounced the Vorin church. Her field is history, and she belongs to the Veristitalians, a group of historians who try to rebuild factual, unbiased accounts of the past. Her research method is relentless: she fills a notebook with cited passages, rates each one for reliability, then sorts them into more specific notebooks.

What are Jasnah Kholin’s powers as an Elsecaller?

Jasnah Kholin’s powers come from two Surges, Transformation and Transportation, which Coppermind lists as the abilities of the Order of Elsecallers. Transformation is Soulcasting, and Jasnah uses it with great precision: burning letters into a page, turning a boulder into smoke and purifying Shallan’s blood of backbreaker powder poison. She is weaker with organics, and her famous failure to Soulcast Kabsal’s strawberry jam is often blamed on the fact that she had never tasted strawberries. Transportation lets her step into Shadesmar and back. For years she hid all of this behind a fake Soulcaster fabrial. Our Jasnah vs Shallan powers comparison breaks down how her Surges stack up against a Lightweaver’s.

Who is Ivory, Jasnah Kholin’s spren?

Ivory is the inkspren bonded to Jasnah, and Coppermind describes him as a small, formal man in a stiff suit and long coat, ink-black with a prismatic sheen like oiled marble. He can change his size but not his shape, except when he becomes a long, thin Shardblade. Ivory bonded Jasnah against the wishes of the other inkspren, and he took a name that contradicts his color as a deliberate act of defiance. He dislikes being discussed and grows anxious when Jasnah talks about him to others. Ivory also serves as her spy, shrinking to the size of a speck to listen in, as he did when the Stormwardens in Urithiru were discussing Renarin.

What happened to Jasnah on the night Gavilar died?

Jasnah Kholin’s first trip into Shadesmar happened on the night her father was assassinated in 1167, and Coppermind’s account of that night is full of details the books reveal slowly. Jasnah was on her way to meet an assassin named Liss, planning to have Elhokar’s wife Aesudan killed, when her shadow formed into a man of oily blackness carrying a sword. In panic she fell into the sea of beads, built a platform and a statue of Talenel out of them, and the figure saluted and bowed. That figure was Ivory. Jasnah then reached a balcony in time to see Szeth fall with Gavilar, and three singers told her they had killed her father to stop something dangerous.

Why did Jasnah Kholin take Shallan as her ward?

Jasnah Kholin rejected Shallan Davar at first in Kharbranth, then relented because Shallan simply would not leave, and Coppermind notes that twelve young women asked Jasnah for a wardship in 1173 alone. Their training mixed history with brutal lessons, such as the night Jasnah walked Shallan down a street known for footpads and Soulcast four attackers into fire, crystal and smoke. Shallan had joined only to steal Jasnah’s Soulcaster for her bankrupt house, and the theft surfaced when the ardent Kabsal poisoned them both. Jasnah forgave her after Shallan proved she could also reach Shadesmar, and together they concluded that the parshmen were the Voidbringers. Our Shallan Davar character guide follows the other side of that relationship.

Does Jasnah Kholin die on the Wind’s Pleasure?

Jasnah Kholin’s apparent death early in Words of Radiance is one of the series’ great fakeouts. Coppermind says mercenaries connected to Tyn, who were trying to earn a place in the Ghostbloods, stabbed her through the heart aboard the Wind’s Pleasure. Jasnah escaped into Shadesmar with the Surge of Transportation and healed herself with Stormlight, then spent the rest of that book in the Cognitive Realm learning about the original Knights Radiant. She reappeared in the Physical Realm after the Everstorm, and Wit was waiting for her. Coppermind adds that she learned from him that humans were the original Voidbringers, a truth she knew before anyone else in Urithiru.

How does Jasnah Kholin become Queen of Alethkar?

Jasnah Kholin’s path to the throne runs through the Battle of Thaylen Field at the end of Oathbringer. Coppermind says she tracked down Renarin, found that his spren Glys had been corrupted by Odium and summoned Ivory to kill her cousin, then could not do it, remembering how the two of them had bonded as outcasts at court. Once Dalinar opened Honor’s Perpendicularity, the realms drew so close that Jasnah Soulcast the very air and sealed a breach in the city wall with bronze. After the battle House Kholin needed a monarch to follow Elhokar. Gavinor was too young, Dalinar and Adolin refused, and at Shallan’s suggestion Jasnah was crowned.

What does Jasnah do as queen in Rhythm of War?

Jasnah Kholin spends Rhythm of War proving she can lead a war, not just study one. During the campaign in Emul, Coppermind recounts, Highprince Ruthar argued that a woman should not command. Jasnah had Wit insult him until Ruthar demanded a trial by combat, Wit named her his champion, and she stabbed Ruthar through the throat, had Renarin heal him, stripped his titles and then outlawed trial by sword. At Drunmu Basin she fought as an ordinary Shardbearer until one of the Magnified Fused forced her to use her Surges. She also drafted the terms of the Contest of Champions with Wit and agreed to write the undertext of Dalinar’s book.

What happens to Jasnah Kholin in Wind and Truth?

Jasnah Kholin faces her hardest defeat in Wind and Truth. Coppermind says she asked to lead the coalition armies in Thaylenah against an expected naval invasion, then sent Windrunners to inspect the enemy fleet and discovered the ships were empty, a ruse to split the coalition. Odium, now Taravangian, came to Thaylen City in person and challenged her to a debate before Queen Fen. Taravangian argued that he could end the war and that Jasnah could not be trusted, and Fen agreed to give Thaylenah to Odium. Jasnah left with a signed copy of the contract as a memento. Her relationship with Hoid also ended by letter, covered in our Who Is Hoid explainer.

What does Jasnah Kholin believe about religion and politics?

Jasnah Kholin is an atheist, and Coppermind stresses that she has never bent that belief to fit in, even though it has made her an outcast in Alethi society. She stays open to being wrong and has no interest in converting anyone. Her best summary of her own view is the idea that religion ascribes supernatural causes to natural events, while she looks for the natural meaning behind supernatural ones. Politically she opposes monarchy despite wearing a crown, expects every kingdom to drift toward more representative government and wants to help push that change. She opposes slavery too, and she knows freed people often stay bound by fear and invisible social chains.

What comes next for Jasnah Kholin?

Jasnah Kholin’s biggest chapters may still be ahead. Coppermind notes that she was a full viewpoint character in The Way of Kings Prime, Sanderson’s 2002 draft, where her arc was the most complete of all the threads before she moved into the background so Shallan could take center stage. The same page lists her as the flashback character for the tenth Stormlight Archive book, which means her childhood lunacy and the dark room she remembers screaming in should finally be explored. Until then, our Stormlight Archive Book 6 guide tracks what has been confirmed about the back five.

Frequently asked questions

What order of Knights Radiant is Jasnah Kholin?

Jasnah Kholin is an Elsecaller. Her bond with the inkspren Ivory gives her the Surges of Transformation and Transportation, which let her Soulcast matter and move herself between the Physical Realm and Shadesmar, the Cognitive Realm. Coppermind notes that she had progressed far enough in her Ideals for Ivory to manifest as a Shardblade.

Does Jasnah Kholin die in Words of Radiance?

No. Jasnah is stabbed through the heart aboard the Wind’s Pleasure by mercenaries tied to the Ghostbloods, but Coppermind explains that she escaped into Shadesmar with the Surge of Transportation and healed herself with Stormlight. She returns to the Physical Realm in Oathbringer, after the Everstorm, and finds Wit waiting for her.

Who is Jasnah Kholin’s spren?

Jasnah’s spren is Ivory, an inkspren who looks like a small, formal man with ink-black skin and a prismatic sheen. Coppermind says he bonded her against the wishes of other inkspren and chose the name Ivory as a symbol of that defiance. He first appeared to her on the night King Gavilar was assassinated.

How does Jasnah become Queen of Alethkar?

After the Battle of Thaylen Field at the end of Oathbringer, House Kholin needed a monarch to succeed Elhokar. Gavinor was too young to rule, and neither Dalinar nor Adolin wanted the throne, so at Shallan’s suggestion Jasnah was crowned Queen of Alethkar, according to Coppermind.

Is Jasnah Kholin an atheist?

Yes. Jasnah is openly atheist and denounced Vorinism years before the series begins, which cost her standing in Alethi society. Coppermind describes her as confident in her lack of faith but open to being wrong, and uninterested in converting anyone. Brandon Sanderson read atheist message boards and talked with atheists he knew while developing her.