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Joren of Stone Mountain (pronounced JOHR-en), born in 440 HE, was the son of Burchard of Stone Mountain and heir to the fief as well as the "bright star" of the family. He had brothers, although nothing is known about them.[1] Like his father he was very much a conservative.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Joren grew up in a luxuriously wealthy household, as the Stone Mountain family was one of the richest noble families in Tortall. They were old blood and old money, and very snobbish to newer members of the nobility. As Joren came from a very conservative household, the belief that women were less-than capable, that foreigners did not belong in Tortall, and that the nobility should remain the most privileged class, were enforced in him from a tender age. He began his training as a page in 450 HE, three years before Keladry of Mindelan came to the palace. Before her arrival, the training master Lord Wyldon believed him to be the most promising of all the new recruits, and extolled him to his family.

The Girl[]

When Keladry of Mindelan came to the palace in 452 HE, he immediately became set on making her leave page training. He hated Kel and used the custom of hazing to his advantage, hazing new pages brutally and picking on Kel especially because she was a girl. He was a member and leader of a group of boys who also believed that Kel had no place with the pages. This included Zahir ibn Alhaz, Garvey of Runnerspring, Vinson of Genlith, and Quinden of Marti's Hill. They regularly hazed new pages, and were the main targets of Kel's anti-hazing for brutality campaign. During strategic tests that Lord Wyldon put the pages through, members of the group would sabotage or try to beat up Kel to drive her out of training. At first, Joren tried to use intimidation tactics in order to drive Kel out. When that didn't work, he and the others worked to besmirching her honor and creating rumors.

Squire Years[]

Joren became the squire of Sir Paxton of Nond in 454 HE. When he stayed at the palace, Joren claimed that he had reformed. However, he had only found more subtle means to bully others and harass Kel. He arranged the kidnapping of Kel's maid Lalasa and her dog Jump to make Kel miss her exams by paying two lower class men, Ivath Brand and Urfan Noll to do it. Later, he was caught, along with the two men who he had paid to kidnap Lalasa. Because of noble privileges, he was only forced to pay a fine, which he was very blasé about.[2] Even though the magistrate laid on all the concessions he could think of, it wasn't enough to faze Joren.[2] This made Kel proposition King Jonathan and Queen Thayet to change the law. The King agreed after a moment of deliberation.

The Chamber of the Ordeal[]

He died in the Chamber of the Ordeal. However, it wasn't the Chamber judging him for his crimes but his own inflexibility that killed him. The Chamber doesn't judge the character, it just tests if the candidate is fit to survive as a knight of the realm. As "Joren could not bend, even a little", he didn't survive the test set for him by the chamber.[3]

Physical description[]

Joren had white-blond hair and blue eyes. His rosy cheeks resembled those of a girl, and he was once described as being like an "ice-prince".[4]

Personality and traits[]

Joren was a cruel person, trained to be hard from when he was a boy. Before he met Kel, he was considered a "golden boy", the most excellent of the family at everything. Wyldon of Cavall told his parents that he was one of the most promising boys the training master had ever taught. This changed when he encountered Kel, and he tried almost everything to drive her out of training, using all sorts of underhanded tactics. He died in the Chamber of the Ordeal by his own inflexibility. When Burchard blamed Kel for his son's death, Buriram Tourakom thought that it could be altogether true, as the Chamber probably exploited the side that Joren only showed around Kel.

Joren was fairly good at the fighting techniques the pages are taught, although Kel thinks that he was heavy-handed on his horse.

Appearances[]

He appears in First Test, Page, and Squire as the main nemesis of Keladry of Mindelan, and is found dead in the Chamber of the Ordeal in Squire.

Notes and references[]

  1. Random Buzz; "Heirs, Lords and more."; April 20, 2009
  2. 2.0 2.1 Squire, Ch. 8 "The Price of a Maid"
  3. Random Buzz; "Alex"; April 14, 2009
  4. First Test, Ch. 2 (pg. 34; Scholastic paperback)

See also[]

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