Monday, January 29, 2007

Jennsen Rahl

Jennsen is the half-sister of Richard Rahl, the Seeker of Truth, and has spent her whole life fleeing from her father Darken Rahl with her mother knowing that if captured she would be tortured and killed. She is what ancient texts refer to as a "pillar of creation" or "a hole in the world", meaning that Jennsen is completely magically ungifted. Unlike everyone else who has at least a spark of the gift, Jennsen does not have that spark and so therefore is not affected by any magic or spell. In addition, she cannot see magic being used.

Jennsen is a twenty year old woman, with brilliant red hair. Her eyes are a spectacular blue and she has the hooded raptor glare of a Rahl. Jennsen is very attractive and it is clear that she is a relative of Richard. Her red hair often leads people to make the assumption that she is a witch, however this is impossible as she is immune to magic and could not possess it herself.

Unlike her father, Jennsen is quite kind hearted, though she does not trust easily. Sometimes rash in her decisions, Jennsen is still quite intelligent and capable with a knife. Having been on the run all her life, Jennsen is knowledgable in how to detect when someone is around her location. She demonstrates this by spreading sticks and gravel around the perimeter of her home or campsite so that any intruders will make noise when they walk on them.

Jennsen was first introduced in the novel The Pillars of Creation. After finding a dead D'Haran soldier, she encounters a man named Sebastian who says he is the strategist for Emperor Jagang of the Imperial Order. After the murder of her mother, Sebastian leads Jennsen through D'Hara to the Old World to meet the Emperor Jagang and help defeat Richard Rahl, whom she believes is seeking to kill her just as her father, Darken Rahl, was.

At the end of the story, Jennsen Rahl meets up with Richard Rahl who tells her not to blame him for his father's actions. Jennsen learns the dead D'Haran she encountered at the beginning of the novel was really an Imperial Order soldier who was disguised and then murdered by Sebastian. Furthermore, she learns that Sebastian sent the quad, also dressed as D'Haran soldiers, to kill her mother. In the end Sebastian kills himself.

After realizing that the Imperial Order was the real enemy and that Richard Rahl was nothing like her father, Jennsen joins Richard and Kahlan Amnell in their fight against Jagang.

Jennsen Rahl also has another half-brother, the equally ungifted Oba Rahl, who believes that he is Darken Rahl's rightful heir.

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