Daja Kisubo
Encyclopedia
Daja Kisubo is a character in the Circle of Magic
and The Circle Opens
quartets and the standalone novel The Will of the Empress
by Tamora Pierce
. She has ambient magic with metal
and fire
.
Daja is a black
Trader, described as being tall, broad-shouldered and muscular. She wears her hair in a varying number of braid
s.
or ship
and buy and sell things; she was fascinated with blacksmiths. She was orphaned at ten due to the sinking of the Third Ship Kisubo, its only survivor. Because of the bad luck associated with a lone survivor, Daja was made trangshi, an outcast from all Traders. In Daja's Book
, the third book in the Circle of Magic
quartet, she is reinstated as a Trader in gratitude for rescuing a Trader caravan from a forest fire.
Her family includes an unnamed father and mother as well as an older brother Uneny, all of whom were on the Third Ship Kisubo. In Tris's Book
there is mention of a Fifth Ship Kisubo, its crew including her Uncle Tiwolu and Aunt Zayda (deceased). After her arrival at the Winding Circle temple community, orphan
ed Daja is informally adopted into a group of mage misfits with Dedicates Lark and Rosethorn as the authority figures and Briar
, Tris
, and Sandry
as her brother and sisters.
In The Will of the Empress
, Daja reunites with her three foster-siblings to protect Sandry from the powerful Empress Berenene
of Namorn. She comes out
as a nisamohi (lesbian
) and falls in love
with the Empress's Mistress of Wardrobe, Rizuka fa Dalach in the primary romantic subplot
in the book. While some have argued that this is the first homosexual romance in the Emelan canon, others speculate that the close relationship between Dedicates Lark and Rosethorn is in fact a homosexual relationship.
mage. This means she draws on the power of the metal or the fire instead of from inside of herself. After Daja is rescued from the ocean, Niklaren Goldeye
(known familiarly as "Niko" to his friends), a powerful mage, takes her to Winding Circle Temple, where she later discovers her gift in metalworking. Daja's teacher while she is at Winding Circle, and later when she is a fully accredited mage, is Dedicate Frostpine, another smith-mage. Her mage medallion (which proves her completion of training) shows a picture of a hammer over flames as a symbol of her magic, and a spiral representing Winding Circle on the reverse, to show where she studied.
and a whitesmith
. She can identify metal by touch and smell and sense metals at a distance with concentration. By accident in Daja's Book
, she created a metal tree out of iron that was supposed to be used for nails. It absorbed other metals, like copper and iron, to grow.
, the brass from the cap of her signature staff melted on her left hand, creating a "living metal" glove. This living metal grows on her hand like a second skin, and must be removed every so often or it would grow to cover her body; Daja can then use it for her trade. Living metal is something entirely unique to Daja and so a lot of her research and time is devoted to the properties of living metal and what she can do/make with it. Most of the living metal used is harvested off her hand, but she once created a living metal rose plant from iron and copper while her magic was still mixed with Briar, Sandry, and Tris. The plant absorbed anything metallic in order to grow. When it absorbed iron, the trunk and branches would grow, while copper made leaves and flower buds.
In Daja's Book
she creates a leg for a Trader who lost her natural leg with an iron frame covered with living metal. In Cold Fire
, she created gloves covered with living metal for use in fire fighting, and drew up plans for a full suit which was never created. She also created a mirror of living metal in which it had shown the Bancanor daughters magic type. In The Will of the Empress
, she made spectacles and ear buds for a mage to dampen the visions he saw on the wind.
She can also make more living metal by adding some of her blood to regular metal. Her living metal creations are how she makes the majority of her income.
, Daja discovers ambient magic in twins Niamara Bancanor (Nia) and Jorality Bancanor (Jory): carpentry in Nia, and cooking in Jory. Daja finds experienced mages in each field to teach the two girls their magic, though, so she only has to teach and hold meditation sessions. She teaches Nia meditation the regular way (sitting and relaxing), because she's calmer, but teaches Jory by fighting with staves due to her restlessness.
Circle of Magic
Circle of Magic is a quartet of fantasy novels by Tamora Pierce, set in Emelan, a fictional realm in a pseudo-medieval and renaissance era. It revolves around four young mages, each specializing in a different kind of magic, as they learn to control their extraordinary and strong powers and put...
and The Circle Opens
The Circle Opens
The Circle Opens is a quartet of novels written by Tamora Pierce and set in a pseudo-medieval/renaissance era. It mainly revolves around four teen-age mages, each specializing in a different kind of magic, as they find that they are forced to deal with mages whose powers are similarly unusual to...
quartets and the standalone novel The Will of the Empress
The Will of the Empress
The Will of the Empress, previously titled The Circle Reforged, is a standalone fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, a continuation of the story of the quartets Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens.-Empress Berenene:...
by Tamora Pierce
Tamora Pierce
Tamora Pierce is an author of fantasy literature for young adults. She is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania. Best known for writing stories involving young heroines, she made a name for herself with her first quartet The Song of the Lioness, which followed the main character Alanna...
. She has ambient magic with metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
and fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
.
Daja is a black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
Trader, described as being tall, broad-shouldered and muscular. She wears her hair in a varying number of braid
Braid
A braid is a complex structure or pattern formed by intertwining three or more strands of flexible material such as textile fibres, wire, or human hair...
s.
Background
Daja is a Trader, a group of people who travel by caravanCaravan (travellers)
A caravan is a group of people traveling together, often on a trade expedition. Caravans were used mainly in desert areas and throughout the Silk Road, where traveling in groups aided in defence against bandits as well as helped to improve economies of scale in trade.In historical times, caravans...
or ship
Ship
Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...
and buy and sell things; she was fascinated with blacksmiths. She was orphaned at ten due to the sinking of the Third Ship Kisubo, its only survivor. Because of the bad luck associated with a lone survivor, Daja was made trangshi, an outcast from all Traders. In Daja's Book
Daja's Book
-Plot introduction:Daja's Book, the third installment in the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, is a young adult fantasy novel. Daja Kisubo, an outcast to her people after she was the lone survivor of her family ship's wreck, and a smith mage in training, travels with her three friends and...
, the third book in the Circle of Magic
Circle of Magic
Circle of Magic is a quartet of fantasy novels by Tamora Pierce, set in Emelan, a fictional realm in a pseudo-medieval and renaissance era. It revolves around four young mages, each specializing in a different kind of magic, as they learn to control their extraordinary and strong powers and put...
quartet, she is reinstated as a Trader in gratitude for rescuing a Trader caravan from a forest fire.
Her family includes an unnamed father and mother as well as an older brother Uneny, all of whom were on the Third Ship Kisubo. In Tris's Book
Tris's Book
Tris's Book, a fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, tells the story of four young mages as they battle pirates and become closer than ever.-Plot introduction:...
there is mention of a Fifth Ship Kisubo, its crew including her Uncle Tiwolu and Aunt Zayda (deceased). After her arrival at the Winding Circle temple community, orphan
Orphan
An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
ed Daja is informally adopted into a group of mage misfits with Dedicates Lark and Rosethorn as the authority figures and Briar
Briar Moss
Briar Moss, once known as 'Roach', is a fictional character from Tamora Pierce's quartets Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens as well as the stand-alone The Will of the Empress.Briar is of unknown, multiracial parentage...
, Tris
Trisana Chandler
Trisana Chandler, Tris for short, is a character in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets and the book The Will of the Empress. She has curly red hair , gray eyes, and wears spectacles. She believes herself to be fat and is called "Fatty" a few times by some of the series'...
, and Sandry
Sandrilene fa Toren
Lady Sandrilene fa Toren, or Sandry, is a fictional character from Tamora Pierce's quartets The Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens as well as the stand-alone The Will of the Empress. She is described as having light brown hair prone to sun-streaks, bright corn-flower blue eyes and an unusually...
as her brother and sisters.
In The Will of the Empress
The Will of the Empress
The Will of the Empress, previously titled The Circle Reforged, is a standalone fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, a continuation of the story of the quartets Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens.-Empress Berenene:...
, Daja reunites with her three foster-siblings to protect Sandry from the powerful Empress Berenene
Berenene dor Ocmore
Berenene dor Ocmore, Empress of Namorn is the title character in the young adult fantasy novel The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce. Based upon the Russian Empress Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I, Berenene serves as an antagonist to the book's four protagonists, and especially Sandrilene fa...
of Namorn. She comes out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
as a nisamohi (lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
) and falls in love
Love
Love is an emotion of strong affection and personal attachment. In philosophical context, love is a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection. Love is central to many religions, as in the Christian phrase, "God is love" or Agape in the Canonical gospels...
with the Empress's Mistress of Wardrobe, Rizuka fa Dalach in the primary romantic subplot
Subplot
A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance...
in the book. While some have argued that this is the first homosexual romance in the Emelan canon, others speculate that the close relationship between Dedicates Lark and Rosethorn is in fact a homosexual relationship.
Magic
Daja is an ambient smithSmith (metalwork)
A metalsmith, often shortened to smith, is a person involved in making metal objects. In contemporary use a metalsmith is a person who uses metal as a material, uses traditional metalsmithing techniques , whose work thematically relates to the practice or history of the practice, or who engages in...
mage. This means she draws on the power of the metal or the fire instead of from inside of herself. After Daja is rescued from the ocean, Niklaren Goldeye
Niklaren Goldeye
Niklaren "Niko" Goldeye is a character of Tamora Pierce's creation, who appears in The Circle of Magic quartet and in Shatterglass of the The Circle Opens quartet, although he is mentioned in all four books of both quartets....
(known familiarly as "Niko" to his friends), a powerful mage, takes her to Winding Circle Temple, where she later discovers her gift in metalworking. Daja's teacher while she is at Winding Circle, and later when she is a fully accredited mage, is Dedicate Frostpine, another smith-mage. Her mage medallion (which proves her completion of training) shows a picture of a hammer over flames as a symbol of her magic, and a spiral representing Winding Circle on the reverse, to show where she studied.
Fire
Daja can weave fire, call it to her and hold it in her bare hands. If she has to walk into a burning building, she has clothes, made by her friend Sandry, that are fire resistant. She can also breath smoke without it killing her but too much can hurt her throat.Metals
Daja can shape metal expertly both with and without magic; she is both a blacksmithBlacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
and a whitesmith
Whitesmith
A whitesmith is a person who works with "white" or light-coloured metals such as tin and pewter. While blacksmiths work mostly with hot metal, whitesmiths do the majority of their work on cold metal .The term is also applied to metalworkers who do only finishing work – such as filing or polishing –...
. She can identify metal by touch and smell and sense metals at a distance with concentration. By accident in Daja's Book
Daja's Book
-Plot introduction:Daja's Book, the third installment in the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, is a young adult fantasy novel. Daja Kisubo, an outcast to her people after she was the lone survivor of her family ship's wreck, and a smith mage in training, travels with her three friends and...
, she created a metal tree out of iron that was supposed to be used for nails. It absorbed other metals, like copper and iron, to grow.
Living metal
As a result of her magic and a forest fire in Daja's BookDaja's Book
-Plot introduction:Daja's Book, the third installment in the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, is a young adult fantasy novel. Daja Kisubo, an outcast to her people after she was the lone survivor of her family ship's wreck, and a smith mage in training, travels with her three friends and...
, the brass from the cap of her signature staff melted on her left hand, creating a "living metal" glove. This living metal grows on her hand like a second skin, and must be removed every so often or it would grow to cover her body; Daja can then use it for her trade. Living metal is something entirely unique to Daja and so a lot of her research and time is devoted to the properties of living metal and what she can do/make with it. Most of the living metal used is harvested off her hand, but she once created a living metal rose plant from iron and copper while her magic was still mixed with Briar, Sandry, and Tris. The plant absorbed anything metallic in order to grow. When it absorbed iron, the trunk and branches would grow, while copper made leaves and flower buds.
In Daja's Book
Daja's Book
-Plot introduction:Daja's Book, the third installment in the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, is a young adult fantasy novel. Daja Kisubo, an outcast to her people after she was the lone survivor of her family ship's wreck, and a smith mage in training, travels with her three friends and...
she creates a leg for a Trader who lost her natural leg with an iron frame covered with living metal. In Cold Fire
Cold Fire (Tamora Pierce novel)
Cold Fire is the third book in the series The Circle Opens by author Tamora Pierce. It deals with the continuing adventures of child mage Daja Kisubo and her teacher, the dedicate initiate Frostpine.-Plot summary:...
, she created gloves covered with living metal for use in fire fighting, and drew up plans for a full suit which was never created. She also created a mirror of living metal in which it had shown the Bancanor daughters magic type. In The Will of the Empress
The Will of the Empress
The Will of the Empress, previously titled The Circle Reforged, is a standalone fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, a continuation of the story of the quartets Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens.-Empress Berenene:...
, she made spectacles and ear buds for a mage to dampen the visions he saw on the wind.
She can also make more living metal by adding some of her blood to regular metal. Her living metal creations are how she makes the majority of her income.
Students
In Cold FireCold Fire (Tamora Pierce novel)
Cold Fire is the third book in the series The Circle Opens by author Tamora Pierce. It deals with the continuing adventures of child mage Daja Kisubo and her teacher, the dedicate initiate Frostpine.-Plot summary:...
, Daja discovers ambient magic in twins Niamara Bancanor (Nia) and Jorality Bancanor (Jory): carpentry in Nia, and cooking in Jory. Daja finds experienced mages in each field to teach the two girls their magic, though, so she only has to teach and hold meditation sessions. She teaches Nia meditation the regular way (sitting and relaxing), because she's calmer, but teaches Jory by fighting with staves due to her restlessness.
Other Skills
Daja is highly proficient in fighting with the Trader staff, often using it to defend herself and others. She speaks three languages - Trader, Common, and Namornese.See also
- Tamora PierceTamora PierceTamora Pierce is an author of fantasy literature for young adults. She is an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania. Best known for writing stories involving young heroines, she made a name for herself with her first quartet The Song of the Lioness, which followed the main character Alanna...
- Circle of MagicCircle of MagicCircle of Magic is a quartet of fantasy novels by Tamora Pierce, set in Emelan, a fictional realm in a pseudo-medieval and renaissance era. It revolves around four young mages, each specializing in a different kind of magic, as they learn to control their extraordinary and strong powers and put...
- The Circle OpensThe Circle OpensThe Circle Opens is a quartet of novels written by Tamora Pierce and set in a pseudo-medieval/renaissance era. It mainly revolves around four teen-age mages, each specializing in a different kind of magic, as they find that they are forced to deal with mages whose powers are similarly unusual to...
- Daja's BookDaja's Book-Plot introduction:Daja's Book, the third installment in the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce, is a young adult fantasy novel. Daja Kisubo, an outcast to her people after she was the lone survivor of her family ship's wreck, and a smith mage in training, travels with her three friends and...
- Cold FireCold Fire (Tamora Pierce novel)Cold Fire is the third book in the series The Circle Opens by author Tamora Pierce. It deals with the continuing adventures of child mage Daja Kisubo and her teacher, the dedicate initiate Frostpine.-Plot summary:...
- The Will of the EmpressThe Will of the EmpressThe Will of the Empress, previously titled The Circle Reforged, is a standalone fantasy novel by Tamora Pierce, a continuation of the story of the quartets Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens.-Empress Berenene:...
- Sandrilene fa TorenSandrilene fa TorenLady Sandrilene fa Toren, or Sandry, is a fictional character from Tamora Pierce's quartets The Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens as well as the stand-alone The Will of the Empress. She is described as having light brown hair prone to sun-streaks, bright corn-flower blue eyes and an unusually...
- Briar MossBriar MossBriar Moss, once known as 'Roach', is a fictional character from Tamora Pierce's quartets Circle of Magic and The Circle Opens as well as the stand-alone The Will of the Empress.Briar is of unknown, multiracial parentage...
- Trisana ChandlerTrisana ChandlerTrisana Chandler, Tris for short, is a character in Tamora Pierce's Circle of Magic and Circle Opens quartets and the book The Will of the Empress. She has curly red hair , gray eyes, and wears spectacles. She believes herself to be fat and is called "Fatty" a few times by some of the series'...