A Year of Heroines in Fantasy #4: Shallan, Jehane Mor, & Aidris of the Chameln

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Here on Supernatural Underground, heroines are definitely our core business -- and for June, I'm shining my spotlight on Shallan, from Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive series, and Jehane Mor in The Wall of Night -- as well as revisiting a longtime favorite, Aidris, the main character in Cherry Wilder's A Princess of the Chameln. 

Shallan features on Stormlight #3

I've chosen to feature these three heroines together because all are exiles and possess hidden powers. Shallan and Aidris both enter their respective stories as young women on the run as well. 

Shallan is fleeing a violent upbringing and her father's murder, while striving to save her brothers from a secret political-cum-criminal underworld. Where her family are nobles, but not rulers, Aidris's parents are the murdered King and Queen of Chameln. Their deaths are engineered through treachery, facilitating an invasion by a neighboring empire, which forces Aidris to flee for her life and assume a new identity, serving as a rank-and-file warrior in another adjoining realm. 

Jehane Mor first appears in The Wall of Night series as a member of a Guild of Heralds, traveling far and wide as one of a herald pair. Yet like Aidris, she is also a Queen-in-Exile, in her case from the ancient realm of Jhaine, which is ruled by nine priestess-queens. Their rule, though, has grown corrupt, and Jehane Mor's flight and exile was driven by opposition to their depravity. 

All three heroines have considerable magical power, although Shallan's are the most open. She becomes a Knight Radiant and is one of the leading champions in the battle to save her world from Odium (the Stormlight series' "big bad." )

Jehane Mor also has considerable magical power, chiefly of concealment and shielding against magical dangers, which fits with a herald's role and so disguises her greater abilities as a priestess-queen. Aidris, too, has powers, although they are mostly smallscale magics that help preserve her life, but which she is careful to keep concealed in her disguise as a household guard.

Of the three, she is also closest to the traditional "heroine-alone," whereas Shallan has a mentor (Jasnah Kholin), a lover (Adolin), and her fellow Knights-Radiant, as well as being bonded, like all Knights Radiant, with a supernatural being called a spren. Conversely, Jehane Mor, like Aidris, has lost many close companions through flight and exile, but retains her closest childhood companion, Tarathan. He has become the other half of their symbiotic herald pair, a bond so close that heralds frequently speak in unison.

Jehane Mor's origins are revealed in The Gathering of the Lost

Aidris may be the most alone of this month's heroine trio, but Shallan is the most vulnerable. Her traumatic childhood has resulted in Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or split personalities, chiefly Veil and Radiant. Although a coping mechanism, the multiple personalities are also symptomatic of deepseated emotional trauma, which Shallan must constantly contend with in order to function as a Knight Radiant. 

Both Aidris and Jehane Mor, by comparison, are strongly grounded in their sense of self, and both are also quiet where Shallan is flamboyant. But where Aidris's quiet stems from shyness and a profound reserve, Jehane Mor is chiefly characterized by serenity as well as composure, even in the face of great danger. Like Aidris, though, the core of her strength is knowing and staying true to herself. 

Yet whether flamboyant or serene, traumatized or centered, one of a "band of comrades" or a protagonist alone, Shallan, Aidris, and Jehane Mor all merit their place in Fantasy's pantheon of heroines. 

Prior Posts: A Year of Heroines in Fantasy

February: Aerin, Elfrid, & Malian of Night
March: Yeine Darr & Rowan Birchmoon
May: Brienne of Tarth, Adjunct Tavore, & Asantir, Commander of Night

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About Helen Lowe

Helen Lowe is the award-winning author of Thornspell and The Wall Of Night fantasy series, as well as a poet, blogger, and lover of story. She has recently completed writing the final book in The Wall of Night series, which is now with publisher, Harper Voyager.

Helen posts regularly on her “…on Anything, Really” blog, monthly on the Supernatural Underground, and tweets @helenl0we.