- This article is about Jamethiel Priest's-Bane, the protagonist of the novels. For Jamethiel Dream-Weaver, the Mistress, see Jamethiel Dream-Weaver.
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Jamethiel Priest's-bane of Knorth,[2] usually called Jame, is a young Kencyr and the protagonist of the series. Jame is the daughter of Ganth Gray Lord, Highlord of the Kencyrath, and of Jamethiel Dream-Weaver. She is the full and fraternal twin sister of Torisen Black Lord, later Highlord. Bane is her half-brother, the son of Ganth and his Kendar mistress, while Kindrie is her first cousin on both sides, the son of Jamethiel Dream-Weaver's brother and Ganth's sister.
Her soul-image is a slightly twisted image of the Great Hall in the Master's House in Perimal Darkling.
Names and Titles[]
Jame is given a great many names over the course of the series. Her birth name is Jamethiel, after her mother. She is quite likely the first to bear that name for the nearly three thousand years since the Fall. When she tells Marc her true, full name in God Stalk, he exclaims that it would have been better to curse a child at birth than to give it that name.[6]
The epithet Priest's-Bane is first mentioned in that conversation, as Marc runs through the ones given to the first Jamethiel. Jame later takes it to herself when she curses Ishtier within the Temple in Tai-tastigon: "and I—I am Jamethiel Priest's-Bane…"[7]. There the God-voice names her as one of the Tyr-ridan, one of the three personifications of the Three-Faced God who will fight Perimal Darkling in the final battle. Her evident Arrin-thari Shanir power marks her as a possible Nemesis, the personification of Regonereth, the clawed aspect of the Three-Faced God.
Most of the time, Jame uses Jame as her name, as was used by her brother and others at the Keep during her childhood.
During her time in the Master's House in Perimal Darkling, Tirandys, her Senethari (teacher), called her Jamie.[8][9]
Kencyr continually assume that Jame's full name is Jameth, since this is the only name that is still acceptable that would have such a contraction. Marc is the first to make this assumption,[10]; it is also made in the Women's Halls[11] and at Tentir.[12] Jame shocks Brenwyr, the Brandan Matriarch, out of a berserker episode by telling her the truth of her full name.
Soon after arriving in Tai-tastigon, Jame leaps to the defense of Penari, who, it emerges, is a landed master in the Thieves' Guild. Jame gives her name as "Jame... Jame Talissen"[13] to Penari, but he mishears and calls her the Talisman; this name, and his mistake in determining her gender, stick with her throughout her career in the guild.
When Jame begins her career as a tavern dancer for the Res aB'tyrr, she takes the name of the B'tyrr.[14]. Almost no one but residents of the inn ever recognizes her as the B'tyrr. The exception is Arribek Sen Tenzi, the Archiem [ruler] of Skyrr (Jame's "ragged hill lord"), who is able to identify the B'tyrr as the Kencyr he'd met earlier hunting with Jorin in the hills beyond the city [15]. Jame reflects that she is now called "luck-bringer" in two different languages, neither her own, contrasting with her own unlucky full name.
Near the end of Seeker's Mask, Jame is declared by Chingetai, the Merikit chief, to be his true son, replacing the deceased "Sonny" and taking his name. We are never told that name, however. Simultaneously, Jame becomes the Earth Wife's Favorite, which is yet another title for Jame. Ironically, for a "newcomer" Kencyr, Jame seems to play a major role in Rathillien supernatural life.
At Tentir, Jame is at first referred to as "Lady," but issues one of her rare orders and says that she would rather be addressed as Jame, Ten, or, at worst, Lordan.
The Whinno-hir Bel-tairi calls Jame Kinzi-kin; Bel-tairi knows that she is related to her former companion.
Near the end of Seeker's Mask, Jame is declared (by her brother Torisen) the Knorth Lordan[16].
Another epithet that Jame picks up is Lordan of Ivory. Timmon calls her this in To Ride a Rathorn,[3] and it is compounded in Honor's Paradox, when one of her ten-command calls it her.[4] By the time of of The Sea of Time[17] and "Stranger Blood",[18] she is using it herself.
Ganth called her Child of Darkness. [19][20] The Dark Judge used that name for her as well,[21][22] and the shadows in the great hall of Tentir called her that too, as well of Lordan of light.[23]
Appearance[]
Jame's hair is "well below her waist", heavy, and "like a rain of black, blue-shot silk".[24] Her face is slim, with "huge, silver-gray eyes" and is "all sharp lines"; her lips are thin.[25] She has two scars on her face; one just under the hairline of her right temple that she picks up in Tai-tastigon,[26] and one on her left cheek, caused by Kallystine's poisoned razor-ring that cut to the bone[27] and mostly healed by Kindrie. Despite the cover art to the contrary, Jame is small-busted and somewhat androgynous, features critical in multiple situations where she is confused with her brother.
Her hands have abnormally long,[28] slim, pale fingers.[29] Each fingertip bears a retractable claw, ivory in color, which lies completely flush with the skin when retracted. Torisen is almost completely incapable of accepting this, the most obvious Shanir facet of her existence. However, some level of the attraction that always exists between Kencyr twins survives his prejudice to the point where, in the Earth Wife's lodge, the two kiss.
By preference, she wears all black; her preferred apparel throughout the series so far involves black pants, boots, cap, gloves, and Tastigon knife-fighter's d'hen jacket. However, during her short stay at the Women's Halls, she wore her aunt Aerulan's clothes, complete with the Highborn lady's tight underskirt.
Age[]
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Because Jame grew up in the Perimal Darkling, in which time passes more slowly, her age isn't easily definable. Her calendar age—the number of years between her birth and the present—puts in her in early 30s, the same age as Torisen. However, based on the length of Jame's life as she experienced it, and her physical and emotional maturity, she's in early 20s. People generally place her as somewhere 19 - 21.[30][31][32]
When both twins are in the Earth Wife's lodge in To Ride a Rathorn, Mother Ragga makes them the same age for the first time since they were seven years old and Jame was driven out of The Keep. When they ask why, she mutters something about Torisen taking advantage of the fact that she is younger than him.
Shanir[]
Jame is the incarnation of Regonereth, Destruction, the Third Face of God. Therefore, she is a powerful Shanir, although few people are aware of exactly how powerful.
Jame, like her namesake, possesses the ability to use the Senetha as a weapon and to dance out people's souls; in addition, she can use the Senetha to search someone's soul for a weak point (a memory or hidden guilt), which she can exploit to destroy them. She can read and use Master runes, although this tends to be an unpleasant, unpredictable, and recklessly employed gift on her part. Her most noticeable Shanir attribute is the possession of ivory claws which lie flat against her fingertips when not in use and can be extended during a fight.[33] She is also a soul-walker, capable of walking through the soulscape and manipulating other people's soul images--indeed, since she escapes her soul image of the Master's House, it becomes her natural state to wander the soulscape clothed in rathorn armor. However, unlike Kindrie, a healer, she usually does damage in the soulscape, whether or not said damage is ultimately beneficial to the recipient. She is also a powerful blood-binder, powerful enough to override Bane's attempt to blood-bind her, as well as being able to forge a mental bond without intending to, as she did with Graykin. She can also use the Voice of Command, often without her intent while under the influence of a berserker flare. Jame's berserker nature is usually under her control.
Lastly, Jame and Tori have the ability to wander through each other's dream- and soul-scapes, to the point where Jame's reality once managed to poison a sleeping Torisen. However, this overlapping subconscious world may be a manifestation of their role as twins and Tyr-ridan, not a Shanir gift that Jame, herself, possesses. Given the fact that the two of them tend to produce uncertain results just by being in the same room, this is not outside the realm of possibility.
References[]
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