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fireforgerWiki Biography
When she was around nine years old, her family's ship sank, leaving her the soul survivor. She stayed alive by unconsciously using magic to bring a suraku (or survival box) to her. She was later rescued by Niklaren Goldeye, who'd had a vision of her fate.
However, as it was Trader belief that sole survivors of disasters would bring bad luck to others, Daja was declared to be trangshi (outcast). She was given an unmarked staff to symbolise this status, and Niko brought her to Winding Circle, a temple community. By this time, she had turned ten.
At Winding Circle, the other children were extremely hostile to her, as Traders were disliked. She met Sandry, who unexpectedly defended her despite being a noble. After one of the attacks on her was witnessed by Dedicate Superior Moonstream, she was sent to live at Discipline college with Dedicates Lark and Rosethorn. Briar came to live there around the same time she did, and soon after so did Sandry and Tris. While Daja didn't get along with the others at first, due to differences in culture and status, they soon developed a close relationship through their shared experiences at Discipline.
She also met the smith-mage Frostpine, and his apprentice Kirel. With Frostpine's encouragement, Daja began to learn about smithing, despite her background as a Trader.
She later learned that she had magic, when Sandry started a brawl with some boys who were torturing a dog and Tris's magic got loose. The townpeople stated that the mageborn were always placed in Rosethorn and Lark's care, and they returned home with the dog - newly named Little Bear - as their pet. Daja then began to learn magic in earnest, continuing the magic lessons that she had, unknown to her, already begun to receive from Frostpine.
During the summer Winding Circle had received a series of earthquakes, and Daja and Sandry, Tris, and Briar end up getting caught in the last and largest earthquake when they chase Little Bear into a cave. As individuals none of them had magic strong enough to protect them form the tremors, Sandry weaved all four of their magics together. Daja was then able to create a strong shield made from underground metals, which helped to save them.
Less than two weeks later, Daja and her foster-siblings overheard a conversation using Tris's magic and then witnessed two watchtowers explode, which is the first hint of a coming pirate attack.
Under Frostpine's supervision, Daja set out to work on restoring a magical net that confuses intruders and is badly damaged. She also saw glimpses of a ship out to sea - this turned out to be a magically hidden pirate ship, which Daja could see because she has gained Tris's new ability to see magic.
Later, Daja joined Frostpine in restoring the weakened metal chains in the harbor that kept ships out. While there the pirates threw catapult stones at the ships, hitting one of the Duke's and causing it to explode. With Frostpine borrowing Daja's strength, they finished and quickly left.
When the pirate fleet attacked in earnest, Daja helped Tris and the others attack it by pulling out all the metal on the ships. However, she got caught in the pirate mage's trap, which drew off all her power. But, when given her part of Sandry's thread by Frostpine, she was able to break free. The Duke's navy arrived and took care of the pirate fleet.
Months later Daja, her foster-siblings, and their teachers went traveling with Duke Vedris as he was inspecting lands affected by drought. While at Gold Ridge Valley, she was working in the local smithy when a one legged Trader woman, Polyam, arrived. As Daja was trangshi, Polyam pretended Daja didn't exist so as to not catch her "bad luck", and Daja needed Tris to speak to Polyam.
Upset over the encounter, Daja lost control over her magic and accidentally created a living iron vine, which trapped her and Tris. Eventually they managed to extricate themselves from the vine, and Polyam brought her caravan leaders to inspect it. They offered to buy it from her, but by negotiating with others - Daja told them that they must deal with her directly if they want it.
Daja's isn't the only magic that was getting out of control - her foster-siblings magic was also going awry. To fix this, Sandry had to map out how their magics were combined, and re-weave them so that it wouldn't get away from their control. However, Sandry left some of their magic still intertwined.
Polyam returned, having been through a complicated cleansing process so that she may negotiate with Daja. Throughout the process, Daja managed to strike up a friendship with the woman, and sold the iron vine to her.
While helping Polyam load the vine onto the caravan, a fire broke out. With magical help from her foster-siblings and Frostpine, Daja was able to weave the forest fire and direct it to a glacier, which it melted, halting the drought. But, she didn't get away unscathed - the fire melted the brass on her Trader's staff, causing her palm to be permanently covered with a living metal.
Now in debt to Daja for saving her life, the Tenth Caravan Idaram payed to have Daja's status as trangshi revoked. They also expected Daja to also travel with them, but that would mean leaving her new family and no longer being a smith. Daja decided to stay with her family, but considered that fact that she is no longer trangshi payment enough. And, feeling that she also owed Polyam a debt, Daja made her a living metal artificial leg, allowing Polyam to walk again.
After they returned home and had been there for a while, her foster-brother Briar and his teacher Rosethorn ended up quarantined in Summersea when they came into contact with a new plague. Throughout the development of the plague - called the Blue Pox - Daja helped Frostpine to create boxes that would carry samples from people who have or have been exposed to the disease, with spells to keep the illness in and other influences out.
When Rosethorn came down with the Blue Pox, Daja helped watch over her. And when Rosethorn had a seizure and Briar followed her into death, Daja acted as an anchor for him and her foster-sisters, who also follow him. Together, they were able to bring Rosethorn back.
At thirteen, Daja and her foster-siblings were made accredited mages and given medallions signifying this, even though most don't achieve this until their twenties. This was as much to keep them in check as well as a recognition of their unusually strong power and control.
When she was fourteen, Daja left Winding circle with Frostpine to learn from other smithies. While in Kugisko, in northern Namorm, Daja discovered that her host family's twin daughters, Nia and Jory, had magic. As she was now an accredited mage, she was required to find teachers for them. She did so for both, but the twins' teachers ask Daja to teach them meditation, as their workshops were noisy and distracting.
While in Kugisko, Daja also encounterd a number of fires, and Ben Ladradun, a firefighter. She was impressed by his dedication, and soon decided to craft for him fire-proof gloves. But the fires that appeared were clearly lit intentionally, and more and more people die in each one. She was puzzled by little things about Ben which appeared to be odd, but still believed him to be a good man.
But, after she completed the gloves and handed them over to him, she was horrified to discover that magical residue from them were found at the very next fire. At this time Ben was away - but when he returns he realised he was being investigated, and set fire to the hospital. Daja saw the flames, and went to assist, helping those in the mental ward escape. She then used her magic to follow her gloves and find Ben, and promised that she would fulfill her obligation to him by attending his execution (the crime of all fire-bugs). At his execution, when he was burning on the pyre, Daja used her magic on to fire to give him a quick death, rather than a long and painful one.
Daja remained at Kugisko for a few months, then she and Frostpine continued journeying. A few years later, when she was around sixteen, she returned home to Summersea. However, as she was too old to stay at Discipline anymore, she decided to buy her own house and forge. This upset Sandry, who hoped Daja would live with her in the Duke's citadel. Daja wanted to remain independent, noting that the Duke wouldn't be around forever. She also decided not to reopen their old magical ability to talk mentally.
A year later, Tris returned, as well as Briar a year after that. Other than Sandry, they all lived in Daja's house, but weren't getting along like they did as children.
When the Duke asked them to accompany Sandry to Namorn, where she had to deal with her family's inheritance, Daja and Tris and Briar agreed.
At Dancruan, Namorn's capital, they met the Empress Berenene, who began to make moves to keep all of them in Narmorn for their magical (and in Sandry's case, political) power.
Daja decided to reopen her magical connection with Sandry, after Sandry took in a woman who had been abused by her husband as maid.
Daja mets Rizu, Berenene's Mistress of the Imperial Wardrobe, and soon developed an attraction to her. Rizu made a few small overtures which hint that she is attracted to Daja as well, culminating in Rizu kissing Daja and the two begin a romance - for Daja, this was also a realisation of why she was never really interested in boys, and that she was in fact attracted to women. Daja began to spend much of her time with Rizu, resulting in no real overtures from Berenene (who assumesd Daja's relationship with Rizu would keep in her Narmorn - in fact, Daja intended to build on the relationship, and ask Rizu to come with her at the end of the summer).
She also met Zhegorz, one of the madmen she had saved from the fire in Kugisko. Tris realised that he was not truly mad, but actually had magic - he sees and hears things on the wind. Daja made him living metal earplugs and glasses to block out what he receives from the wind.
After one of the nights that she spent with Rizu, Daja learned that Sandry had been kidnapped by Fin - a result of Namorn's culture of "bride kidnappings" (where men are allowed to kidnap women and hold them until they sign a marriage contract), and Fin's belief that Berenene would approve him doing this to keep Sandry in Namorn.
Along with her foster-siblings, Daja decided to leave Narmorn immediately. She asked Rizu to come with her, but is heartbroken when Rizu decided to stay, as Rizu won't leave her position at court. She also reopened her magical connection with Tris, when Tris comforted her after this.
Before they were able to leave, Berenene's mage Ishabal sent a magical curse to Tris, causing her to fall down the stairs and break many of her bones. They brought in healers, but it would still be weeks before Tris could leave. At Tris's urging, Daja, Briar, and Sandry decided to leave before her.
While staying at an inn, the court mage Quenaill and Shan put them all under a sleep spell. Briar woke Daja, and they went downstairs where Quenaill put them in a magical caging spell. Daja reopened her magical connection with Briar, and by combining their magics they were able to break free and encase Quenaill in a cage of wire and vines. This also blocked off the spells he had cast on Sandry, who had been taken away by Shen (who also plans to make her sign a marriage contract). Sandry then returned, having been able to overthrow her captors when the spells binding her magic were gone.
They continued to the border, where Ishabal raised the magical barrier. By using the thread that Sandry had used to bind them together, and combining their magics, they broke the barrier and walked through. On the other side, they met up with Tris again, and began to journey home.
- The Magic in the Weaving / Sandry's Book
- The Power in the Storm / Tris's Book
- The Fire in the Forging / Daja's Book
- The Healing in the Vine / Briar's Book
- Cold Fire
- The Will of the Empress
When she was around nine years old, her family's ship sank, leaving her the soul survivor. She stayed alive by unconsciously using magic to bring a suraku (or survival box) to her. She was later rescued by Niklaren Goldeye, who'd had a vision of her fate.
However, as it was Trader belief that sole survivors of disasters would bring bad luck to others, Daja was declared to be trangshi (outcast). She was given an unmarked staff to symbolise this status, and Niko brought her to Winding Circle, a temple community. By this time, she had turned ten.
At Winding Circle, the other children were extremely hostile to her, as Traders were disliked. She met Sandry, who unexpectedly defended her despite being a noble. After one of the attacks on her was witnessed by Dedicate Superior Moonstream, she was sent to live at Discipline college with Dedicates Lark and Rosethorn. Briar came to live there around the same time she did, and soon after so did Sandry and Tris. While Daja didn't get along with the others at first, due to differences in culture and status, they soon developed a close relationship through their shared experiences at Discipline.
She also met the smith-mage Frostpine, and his apprentice Kirel. With Frostpine's encouragement, Daja began to learn about smithing, despite her background as a Trader.
She later learned that she had magic, when Sandry started a brawl with some boys who were torturing a dog and Tris's magic got loose. The townpeople stated that the mageborn were always placed in Rosethorn and Lark's care, and they returned home with the dog - newly named Little Bear - as their pet. Daja then began to learn magic in earnest, continuing the magic lessons that she had, unknown to her, already begun to receive from Frostpine.
During the summer Winding Circle had received a series of earthquakes, and Daja and Sandry, Tris, and Briar end up getting caught in the last and largest earthquake when they chase Little Bear into a cave. As individuals none of them had magic strong enough to protect them form the tremors, Sandry weaved all four of their magics together. Daja was then able to create a strong shield made from underground metals, which helped to save them.
Less than two weeks later, Daja and her foster-siblings overheard a conversation using Tris's magic and then witnessed two watchtowers explode, which is the first hint of a coming pirate attack.
Under Frostpine's supervision, Daja set out to work on restoring a magical net that confuses intruders and is badly damaged. She also saw glimpses of a ship out to sea - this turned out to be a magically hidden pirate ship, which Daja could see because she has gained Tris's new ability to see magic.
Later, Daja joined Frostpine in restoring the weakened metal chains in the harbor that kept ships out. While there the pirates threw catapult stones at the ships, hitting one of the Duke's and causing it to explode. With Frostpine borrowing Daja's strength, they finished and quickly left.
When the pirate fleet attacked in earnest, Daja helped Tris and the others attack it by pulling out all the metal on the ships. However, she got caught in the pirate mage's trap, which drew off all her power. But, when given her part of Sandry's thread by Frostpine, she was able to break free. The Duke's navy arrived and took care of the pirate fleet.
Months later Daja, her foster-siblings, and their teachers went traveling with Duke Vedris as he was inspecting lands affected by drought. While at Gold Ridge Valley, she was working in the local smithy when a one legged Trader woman, Polyam, arrived. As Daja was trangshi, Polyam pretended Daja didn't exist so as to not catch her "bad luck", and Daja needed Tris to speak to Polyam.
Upset over the encounter, Daja lost control over her magic and accidentally created a living iron vine, which trapped her and Tris. Eventually they managed to extricate themselves from the vine, and Polyam brought her caravan leaders to inspect it. They offered to buy it from her, but by negotiating with others - Daja told them that they must deal with her directly if they want it.
Daja's isn't the only magic that was getting out of control - her foster-siblings magic was also going awry. To fix this, Sandry had to map out how their magics were combined, and re-weave them so that it wouldn't get away from their control. However, Sandry left some of their magic still intertwined.
Polyam returned, having been through a complicated cleansing process so that she may negotiate with Daja. Throughout the process, Daja managed to strike up a friendship with the woman, and sold the iron vine to her.
While helping Polyam load the vine onto the caravan, a fire broke out. With magical help from her foster-siblings and Frostpine, Daja was able to weave the forest fire and direct it to a glacier, which it melted, halting the drought. But, she didn't get away unscathed - the fire melted the brass on her Trader's staff, causing her palm to be permanently covered with a living metal.
Now in debt to Daja for saving her life, the Tenth Caravan Idaram payed to have Daja's status as trangshi revoked. They also expected Daja to also travel with them, but that would mean leaving her new family and no longer being a smith. Daja decided to stay with her family, but considered that fact that she is no longer trangshi payment enough. And, feeling that she also owed Polyam a debt, Daja made her a living metal artificial leg, allowing Polyam to walk again.
After they returned home and had been there for a while, her foster-brother Briar and his teacher Rosethorn ended up quarantined in Summersea when they came into contact with a new plague. Throughout the development of the plague - called the Blue Pox - Daja helped Frostpine to create boxes that would carry samples from people who have or have been exposed to the disease, with spells to keep the illness in and other influences out.
When Rosethorn came down with the Blue Pox, Daja helped watch over her. And when Rosethorn had a seizure and Briar followed her into death, Daja acted as an anchor for him and her foster-sisters, who also follow him. Together, they were able to bring Rosethorn back.
At thirteen, Daja and her foster-siblings were made accredited mages and given medallions signifying this, even though most don't achieve this until their twenties. This was as much to keep them in check as well as a recognition of their unusually strong power and control.
When she was fourteen, Daja left Winding circle with Frostpine to learn from other smithies. While in Kugisko, in northern Namorm, Daja discovered that her host family's twin daughters, Nia and Jory, had magic. As she was now an accredited mage, she was required to find teachers for them. She did so for both, but the twins' teachers ask Daja to teach them meditation, as their workshops were noisy and distracting.
While in Kugisko, Daja also encounterd a number of fires, and Ben Ladradun, a firefighter. She was impressed by his dedication, and soon decided to craft for him fire-proof gloves. But the fires that appeared were clearly lit intentionally, and more and more people die in each one. She was puzzled by little things about Ben which appeared to be odd, but still believed him to be a good man.
But, after she completed the gloves and handed them over to him, she was horrified to discover that magical residue from them were found at the very next fire. At this time Ben was away - but when he returns he realised he was being investigated, and set fire to the hospital. Daja saw the flames, and went to assist, helping those in the mental ward escape. She then used her magic to follow her gloves and find Ben, and promised that she would fulfill her obligation to him by attending his execution (the crime of all fire-bugs). At his execution, when he was burning on the pyre, Daja used her magic on to fire to give him a quick death, rather than a long and painful one.
Daja remained at Kugisko for a few months, then she and Frostpine continued journeying. A few years later, when she was around sixteen, she returned home to Summersea. However, as she was too old to stay at Discipline anymore, she decided to buy her own house and forge. This upset Sandry, who hoped Daja would live with her in the Duke's citadel. Daja wanted to remain independent, noting that the Duke wouldn't be around forever. She also decided not to reopen their old magical ability to talk mentally.
A year later, Tris returned, as well as Briar a year after that. Other than Sandry, they all lived in Daja's house, but weren't getting along like they did as children.
When the Duke asked them to accompany Sandry to Namorn, where she had to deal with her family's inheritance, Daja and Tris and Briar agreed.
At Dancruan, Namorn's capital, they met the Empress Berenene, who began to make moves to keep all of them in Narmorn for their magical (and in Sandry's case, political) power.
Daja decided to reopen her magical connection with Sandry, after Sandry took in a woman who had been abused by her husband as maid.
Daja mets Rizu, Berenene's Mistress of the Imperial Wardrobe, and soon developed an attraction to her. Rizu made a few small overtures which hint that she is attracted to Daja as well, culminating in Rizu kissing Daja and the two begin a romance - for Daja, this was also a realisation of why she was never really interested in boys, and that she was in fact attracted to women. Daja began to spend much of her time with Rizu, resulting in no real overtures from Berenene (who assumesd Daja's relationship with Rizu would keep in her Narmorn - in fact, Daja intended to build on the relationship, and ask Rizu to come with her at the end of the summer).
She also met Zhegorz, one of the madmen she had saved from the fire in Kugisko. Tris realised that he was not truly mad, but actually had magic - he sees and hears things on the wind. Daja made him living metal earplugs and glasses to block out what he receives from the wind.
After one of the nights that she spent with Rizu, Daja learned that Sandry had been kidnapped by Fin - a result of Namorn's culture of "bride kidnappings" (where men are allowed to kidnap women and hold them until they sign a marriage contract), and Fin's belief that Berenene would approve him doing this to keep Sandry in Namorn.
Along with her foster-siblings, Daja decided to leave Narmorn immediately. She asked Rizu to come with her, but is heartbroken when Rizu decided to stay, as Rizu won't leave her position at court. She also reopened her magical connection with Tris, when Tris comforted her after this.
Before they were able to leave, Berenene's mage Ishabal sent a magical curse to Tris, causing her to fall down the stairs and break many of her bones. They brought in healers, but it would still be weeks before Tris could leave. At Tris's urging, Daja, Briar, and Sandry decided to leave before her.
While staying at an inn, the court mage Quenaill and Shan put them all under a sleep spell. Briar woke Daja, and they went downstairs where Quenaill put them in a magical caging spell. Daja reopened her magical connection with Briar, and by combining their magics they were able to break free and encase Quenaill in a cage of wire and vines. This also blocked off the spells he had cast on Sandry, who had been taken away by Shen (who also plans to make her sign a marriage contract). Sandry then returned, having been able to overthrow her captors when the spells binding her magic were gone.
They continued to the border, where Ishabal raised the magical barrier. By using the thread that Sandry had used to bind them together, and combining their magics, they broke the barrier and walked through. On the other side, they met up with Tris again, and began to journey home.
