Joren of Stone Mountain (b. 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. He began his training as a page in 450 HE, three years before Keladry of Mindelan came to the palace. 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.

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 take revenge on Kel. He arranged the kidnapping of Kel's maid Lalasa and her dog Jump to make Kel miss her exams and was charged for the crimes, but was only forced to pay a fine because he was a noble and Lalasa was not (this lead Kel to ask King Jonathan to change the laws).

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.^[2]

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".^[3] Joren was fairly good at the fighting techniques the pages are taught, although Kel thinks that he was heavy-handed on his horse.

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 referencesEdit

1. ↑ Random Buzz; "Heirs, Lords and more."; April 20, 2009
2. ↑ Random Buzz; "Alex"; April 14, 2009
3. ↑ First Test, Cp. 2 (p. 34; Scholastic paperback)

See alsoEdit