Characters / Deltora Quest: Main Characters

The Main Trio

In General

• Dark and Troubled Past:
  • Lief: Born and raised in the dystopia that Del became after the Shadow Lord invaded.
  • Barda: His mother was killed as part of a conspiracy, with him fleeing for his life and then spending the next sixteen years as a beggar.
  • Jasmine: She grew up in a forest alone, having to fend for herself after her parents were taken away by Grey Guards when she was seven.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The three have to defeat the Shadow Lord and his plans three times before they and their kingdom can finally be safe and have a proper life.
• Fire-Forged Friends: None of them are very fond of the others at first, but are True Companions, through and through, by the end.
• Freudian Trio: Barda and Jasmine are either the Superego or Id, depending on the situation—Jasmine's the most practical when it comes to survival or immediate goals, but also the most impulsive and/or emotional in all other regards, whereas Barda is most likely to fall victim to Honor Before Reason, but has the wisdom and experience to think long-term. Lief tends to be the Ego aka balance between the two, not being as ruthless as Jasmine but caring less about honour than Barda.
• Magnetic Hero: They gain a lot of allies over the course of the first and second series. Solving said allies' biggest problems first helps. They make use of this in Return to Del, and it proves to serve them as well in Shadowlands, completely unintentionally.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Lief's the nice one who tries to avoid offending others, give or take a few situations where he swaps with Barda^note in particular, when dealing with Neridah in Valley of the Lost, as Lief knows from personal experience not to trust Neridah, whereas Barda doesn't, while Jasmine's the mean one with No Social Skills and Barda's in between, not being as diplomatic as Lief but less liable to piss someone off than Jasmine.
• Pragmatic Hero: It's important to be one in a world where even plants can kill you.
  • Jasmine starts off as the most blatant, as she has a very practical personality due to her upbringing in the Forests, often prepares for possible dangers during their quests, and is the least likely to fall prey to Chronic Hero Syndrome.
  • Barda is always seen trying to come up with a plan before taking action, and is the most likely to consider whether something will actually benefit the heroes—or anyone—in the long run.
  • Though very impulsive and hot-headed in the beginning, Lief learns to think pragmatically and plan carefully. He gets even more pragmatic after he becomes King, to the extent that Jasmine (who was more than a little bitter at him at the time) even accuses of him being cold and calculating at times.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: At first. Lief resented Barda for being his babysitter, Barda resented Lief for having to babysit him, and neither were particularly fond of Jasmine's attitude, while Jasmine herself didn't entirely appreciate having to leave her home for them. Suffice to say, they got better.
• True Companions: They gradually develop into a makeshift familly.
  • In the later series, their steadfast allies include Manus, Gla-Thon, Marilen, Zeean, Lindal, Ranesh, Doom, the Kin (most notably Prin), Gers and Steven.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: Downplayed. Lief and Barda were acquainted before the start of the series, while Jasmine is initially a complete stranger.

Lief

Voiced by: Ryosuke Sakamaki (Japanese), Cole Howard (English)

Lief was raised as a blacksmith's son in the run-down city of Del after the invasion. Hot-headed and impatient at the start of the series, all he wanted to do was go out and explore the city. On the night of his sixteenth birthday, he leaves on his father's quest to restore the Belt of Deltora, the only thing that can save their land and the heir from the tyranny of the Shadow Lord.

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• Adaptation Dye-Job: His hair color is never explicitly stated in the books but it was implied to be on the darker end of the color spectrum. The anime gives him blonde hair.
• Ancestral Weapon: Uses a sword, namely the one his father made for him for his birthday.
• Anger Born of Worry: When Prin is almost killed by a Dread Gnome's poisoned arrow while attempting to fly to Dread Mountain, Lief fears for her and yells at her for putting herself in danger like that. It is something Lief had sworn never to do after having experienced it from Barda himself in the Shifting Sands, and he apologizes to Prin afterward for it. Whenever Lief returned home to the forge in Del after dark and took risks, both Endon and Sharn would be furious as they were so frightened for him. Lief recalls this in Dread Mountain when he has his own Anger Born of Worry moment.
• Babies Ever After: Has three children with Jasmine in the epilogue.
• Back from the Dead: Depending on your interpretation of events, his fall and subsequent revival through the lilies' nectar in City of the Rats is a Near-Death Experience or this.
• Badass Adorable: The second youngest and second shortest of the three heroes, but don't think that means he's weaker.
• Badass Bookworm: Is very educated for his social standing and often outsmarts his enemies rather than out-muscling them.
• Badass in Distress: In Cavern of the Fear he is held captive by Granous in the Os-Mine Hills alongside Barda, and is forced to take part in a sadistic game.
• Badass Normal: He can hold his own in a fight, while using a sword.
• Battle Couple: With Jasmine in the third series (or as battle-y as they can get in a world where they'd rather flee from enemies than confront them).
• Big Brother Instinct: He develops a bit of this towards Prin, in a parallel to his own relationship with Barda.
• Birds of a Feather: Played with. In the second series, Jasmine misses the "old" Lief, who was brave and eager for adventure—traits that Jasmine herself possesses—and dislikes the secretive and kingly Lief, aka traits that Jasmine doesn't possess. However, by the end, she and Lief reconcile, and there's no issue from there.
• The Blacksmith: He was his father's apprentice. In the second series, he is skilled enough as a smith to make a replica of the Belt of Deltora.
• Blessed with Suck: Wielding the Belt/being Adin's heir seems to come with the unfortunate side effect of seeing/hearing things no one else does and overall being rather sensitive to evil, to the extent that it's not uncommon for Lief to go into a trance or essentially faint. He's lucky he's the protagonist, or he'd probably come off as a tad crazy.
• Body Horror: After having Bede's special mask ripped off his face, Lief obtains some very horrific-looking scars.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Temporarily in Shadowgate, by Bede's mask.
• Broken Ace: By the third series, he's for all intents and purposes the most powerful and beloved person in all of Deltora. Unfortunately, for all of his heroics and accomplishments, he's more likely to fixate on his failures.
• Cannot Spit It Out: In regards to Jasmine. This is a result of his awkwardness with women.
• The Chains of Commanding: A common source of anxiety for him after he becomes king.
• A Child Shall Lead Them: Only sixteen when he takes the throne.
• The Chosen One: By virtue of being the heir, due to how the Belt works. More explicitly, the third series off-handedly mentions that someone once prophesized that a king would one day arise against the Shadow Lord.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He's utterly unable to ignore someone in need, sometimes to his detriment as this tends to be counterproductive to his objectives.
• Despair Event Horizon: He nearly crosses it during his Darkest Hour in The Sister of the South, blocked only by Zeean's encouragement and the realization that he's not completely screwed yet, and even then, he struggles.
• Determinator: And how! He's survived against Ols, Grey Guards, Vraals, and countless other monsters. He's been cut, bruised, burned, and nearly eaten by a carnivorous plant. How he and Barda and Jasmine managed to survive in Deltora day-to-day is anyone's guess.
• Dangerous 16th Birthday: He found out that his father had lived in the palace, that the beggar by the gate was actually a competent fighter, and that he had to set off on a quest to find the one true king all on his birthday.
• Farm Boy: He started out as a blacksmith's apprentice.
• Fisher King: The bloodline of Adin wielding the Belt of Deltora keeps the land safe from invasion. To a lesser extent, Lief's dedication to the country results in him cleaning up a lot of its problems.
• Forced to Watch: By the Shadow Lord's rules, Lief, since infancy, has had to watch the public branding and executions that occurred every year.
• Forgot About His Powers: An unusual example. During his Heroic Safe Mode in Shadowgate he's so resigned to the hopelessness of the situation of getting to the Sister of the North buried in a pit of snakes which he assumes will kill him that he initially completely forgets he's got the ruby with him, an antidote to snake venom that gave even the giant snake Reeah pause, and that has since become even stronger since the ruby dragon awakened. As a result, instead of the snakes killing him when he falls into the pit, they actively flee from him.
• Good Is Not Soft: While the most soft-hearted among the main characters, he's willing to kill if he has to. As Dain can attest to, painfully.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Not really noticeable in the anime (Which appears to favor Dain and Jasmine), but many interactions Dain had with Jasmine led him to silently fume. He got over it eventually, but by then, Dain had shown his true colours as a Grade 3 Ol.
• Guile Hero: A little zigzagged, he can think on his feet to trick enemies but he gets played for a fool himself just as much.
• Guilt Complex: He develops one by the third series, in part due to The Chains of Commanding. A common pattern is: Lief does a thing, said thing seemingly leads to negative consequences, Lief blames himself for it even if it wasn't completely his fault, and then said thing usually ends up actually saving them all.
• The Good King: After the Shadow Lord's defeat Lief goes on to rule Deltora long and wisely. He plays a large part in helping the kingdom recover from the longs years of tyranny.
• Happily Married: To Jasmine after the end of the third series.
• Healing Hands: Lief can use different gems can relieve various ailments, including venom, poison, disease, and blindness.
• Hearing Voices: Whoo boy. Reeah, the Hive, the Pirran Pipe, the Shadow Lord through the crystal, the dead & people of Del through the topaz, Bede's call, the dragons... Suffice to say, Lief's head must get a little crowded at times.
• The Hero: He's the protagonist of the story, and sent by his parents to restore the Belt of Deltora and rid the kingdom of the Shadow Lord.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • In Dread Mountain he discovers that his parents have been imprisoned by the Shadow Lord who suspects them of helping the heroes who are restoring the Belt of Deltora. He immediately wants to return to Del, but soon realises with Barda's help that the quest must go on, for it is the only thing that would free Deltora of the Shadow Lord.
  • In The Sister of the South Lief has a major BSOD when he believes that he's made a mistake and that the 'Toran Plague' is real. He is heartbroken at the thought that he has doomed his friends and family. He even tries to take of the Belt in his misery but is unable to.
• Heroic Lineage: Is a descendant of Adin.
• Heroic Safe Mode: Enters one in the climax of Shadowgate, due to believing that Barda and Jasmine are dead, to the extent that he feels nothing even after being pushed into a pit full of venomous snakes.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Lief was given a lethal sword for his birthday which was forged by his father. It becomes the weapon of his choice for the entire series.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Lief fears the power of the great opal and uses it a total of three times throughout the entire story, and only once with the intention of seeing the future.
• Holding Hands: Does this often with Jasmine in the third series.
• Hot-Blooded: Extremely so at the beginning of the first series, but slowly comes out of it as the quest goes on. After he becomes King he is more level-headed, and with good reason.
• Humble Hero: He tends to be uncomfortable with being treated like a saviour or someone deserving respect, in spite of all of his accomplishments.
• I Am Who?: The heir to Deltora.
• Identical Stranger: To Bede (to Lief's misfortune, seeing as how Bede's mother happens to be a Yandere).
• I Did What I Had to Do: Downplayed in the severity of his actions, but he unhappily justifies what he does (and all the secrecy surrounding it) in the second series with this. Jasmine, at the start, is less than pleased with this.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Subverted. Despite being one of the most compassionate and heroic characters in the series, he himself almost falls for the Sister of the South's allure when at an emotional low. It's in that moment that he's finally able to understand the antagonists of the third series, and how they fell to corruption.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Barda, Doom and most of the people he meets on his travels around Deltora.
• Invisibility Cloak: His mother sews a cloak for him that conceals the wearer, as a birthday gift.
• I Shall Taunt You: His favoured tactic for dealing with antagonists.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Congrats, Lief, you're the king! Now deal with assassination attempts/being the single most targeted person in the land, having to prove yourself to the entire country, dealing with every single problem and having to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong, etc.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Lief blames himself strongly for Josef's death in the third series, thinking that if only he had realised Paff's treachery and looked out for Josef more instead of dismissing him as senile and leaving Del to destroy the Sisters, then it would not have happened the way it did.
  • As a whole, Lief blames himself for everything that goes wrong in The Sister of the South.
• Jumped at the Call: He couldn't wait to begin his quest. It... doesn't take long before he's a lot more bitter about the entire thing.
• Just a Kid: Averted, for the most part. He himself is insecure over this, though, as he's painfully aware that he's much younger than the people who serve him.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: That, for pragmatic reasons, he has to hide things even from Barda and Jasmine and be willing to strain his relationships with them is a point of woe for him in the second series.
• King Incognito: In later books.
• Legendary in the Sequel: Increasingly so throughout the series. He starts off as an unremarkable blacksmith's son, but after he becomes king, everybody knows who he is (since, well, he's their ruler). By the third series, he's near universally beloved as a hero, and Star of Deltora indicates that he's still popular among the people.
• Loved by All: Barring servants of the Shadow Lord and the Masked Ones, Lief's achieved this by Dragon's Nest, exemplified by when he asks for the people of Del to think of him throughout the night, as a request, and one man tells him they would gladly give him their lives if he asked for them—and the entire crowd cheers in agreement. It comes to bite him in the series' finale, however: Paff easily stirs up suspicion against the Torans by spreading a conspiracy that they're plotting to overthrow Lief, and to a lesser extent, when the guards and civilians come rushing to defend the palace from the topaz dragon, Lief has to worry both about what he's doing and getting the people to realize the dragon is an ally, not an enemy.
• Magic Knight: On top of being a Master Swordsman, the Belt of Deltora offers a vast amount of magical powers for him to use.
• Manly Tears: Lief starts off as somewhat of a typical cocky teenage boy who considers it shameful to cry. Part of his Character Development is learning to kick that notion out of his system. Namely, over Manus's music in grief for what he believes he's lost in Lake of Tears, and Barda on his deathbed in Return to Del.
• Marry for Love: What Lief resolves to do (and eventually does do) with Jasmine.
• Meaningful Name: 'Lief' means 'heir' and 'loved', and he is both.
• Modest Royalty: Prefers to live and dress as a blacksmith as opposed to a king.
• Near-Death Experience: In City Of the Rats, while distracting the guardian monster Reeah from Jasmine and Barda as they try to take the opal from it, Lief is nearly eaten by Reeah when the serpent gets tired of him. Jasmine slits Reeah's throat, which causes Lief to fall several stories to the ground and break all the bones in his body. He is thankfully saved by the healing nectar from the Lilies of Life and is back on his feet in no time.
• Nice Guy: Generally the politest and closest thing to an All-Loving Hero among the main trio.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In The Sister of the South Lief manages to defeat the fourth Sister with the help of the topaz dragon Fidelis. Everyone rejoices. And then Lief finds out that it was all for nothing, for the destruction of the last Sister was primed to release the Grey Tide, which would sweep over all of Deltora, destroying everything that remained. He then has to tell this to everyone else, who look on in horror.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Only the current ruler of Deltora can use the Belt to its full extent, making Lief invaluable to the country once he takes the throne.
• Properly Paranoid:
  • At the start of the second series, Lief feels unsafe even in his own bedroom, thanks to numerous assassination attempts—oh hey, look at that poisonous scorpion under his pillow!
  • In The Sister of the South, despite everyone else celebrating what seems to be their final victory, Lief finds himself to shake off the feeling that something is wrong. It's a good thing he acted as quickly as he did.
• Rags to Royalty: He is the heir to Deltora.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: He frequently gives these to his enemies, whether in a heroic version of Break Them by Talking or to distract them.
• Replacement Goldfish: Bess tries to turn him into one for Bede.
• Rightful King Returns: At the end of Return to Del.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: He along with Barda and Jasmine defeat all of the Shadow Lord's plans and save Deltora three times.
• Royalty Super Power: See Only the Chosen May Wield.
• Ruling Couple: With Jasmine at the end.
• Secret Legacy: He had no clue that he was Adin's heir.
• Slave to PR: The result of being a Fisher King, where his powers are dependent on his reputation. One factor he always has to consider in his decisions is this: will it make the people think he cares nothing for them? Because if so, then hello, invitation for the Shadow Lord to invade them again!
• The Smart Guy: Lief uses his brains over his brawn wherever possible.
• Strong Family Resemblance: He's noted to heavily resemble his father—though personality-wise, he takes after his mother.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Successfully pulls this off with Soldeen.
• Took a Level in Cynic: While he never fully loses his idealism, there's a marked difference between the weary hero at the end of the series and the Wide-Eyed Idealist Lief is at the start.
• Tough Leader Façade: He feels obliged to present himself as a "proper" king at all times, and that anything else would shock or disappoint his guards. It's only when he's alone with his friends that he allows himself to act freely and be the teenager he still is.
• Tranquil Fury: Occasionally expresses his anger as such, most notably in the climax of Shadowgate and during Laughing Jack's Sadistic Choice in The Isle of the Dead, the latter of which he gives a "Reason You Suck" Speech in nothing but a soft, level tone.
• Unwitting Pawn: During the second and third series, everyone is at risk of being a pawn. By listening to the recording in the crystal and finding the first part of the map of the Four Sisters, Lief was playing into the Shadow Lord's hands as the Shadow Lord knew that if he destroyed the crystal he would find out about the Four Sisters and set out to destroy them, thereby releasing the Grey Tide as a result. Lief is horrified when he realises this.
• Upbringing Makes the Hero: His parents purposely raised him as a commoner so that he would be wise to the ways of the world, rather than end up ignorant as they—and the generations before them—did.
• Walking Spoiler: It's difficult to talk about Lief in the second and third series without revealing the biggest twist of the first series. The book covers don't even try to hide it!
• Weak, but Skilled: Lief's general fighting style. Since he's smaller than most of his opponents he tends to use speed and cunning to defeat them, rather than strength.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: As he was a street kid for most of his childhood, Lief is wise in the ways of his people and the dangers that lurk in Del at night.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: On the receiving end of this from Josef in Dragon's Nest, where Lief has a moment of weakness and admits that he's not handling his burdens as well as Josef claims he is. In response, Josef assures him that Lief is meant for greatness, and that he needs to believe in himself.
• You Are Not Alone: He pulls this on himself in Sister of the South. While initially overwhelmed by the scope of what must be done, he then reminds himself that he has countless friends for support. Unfortunately, his relief is short-lived.

Barda

Voiced by: Yuusaku Yara (Japanese), Tom Edwards (English)

The former palace guard of Del. Before the Shadow Lord took control of Deltora, Barda's mother Min overheard the Shadow Lord's plot to take control of Deltora. Scared, she told the news to King Endon, who believed she was mistaken and had merely been dreaming. Several hours later she was murdered for what she knew. Afraid for his life, Barda fled the palace and found shelter in the forge, and fell asleep there.

When he awoke, Barda stumbled upon Jarred and Anna hurrying the king and queen away. When he approached them, Jarred knocked Barda out because he was afraid that he was an enemy.

For the next sixteen years, Barda disguised himself as a beggar to discover information vital to the quest. Upon Lief's sixteenth birthday, Barda reveals himself to Lief, and the quest for the gems begins.

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• Amazon Chaser: Lindal's fighting prowess probably has something to do with Barda's attraction to her.
• Anger Born of Worry: When Lief is separated from his companions in the Shifting Sands, and is later rescued by Barda and Jasmine from a sand-beast, Barda blows it at Lief as he was so afraid for him.
• Babies Ever After: After the third series Barda and Lindal have six children, all identical and taller than their parents.
• Back from the Dead: As with Lief, his brush with death after being stabbed by Gorl and then revived with the Lilies of Life is either a Near-Death Experience or this, depending on whether you believe he literally died or not.
• Badass Cape: Has one as a palace guard.
• Badass in Distress: In Return to Del, he, Jasmine and Doom are being held captive and are about to be executed by Fallow on the Place of Punishment. Luckily Lief swoops in (almost literally) and saves the day.
• Badass Normal: Barda has no supernatural powers at all, but he is a palace guard, who are the most powerful fighters in Deltora.
• Bears Are Bad News: His nickname is Barda the Bear.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Barda and Lindal in the third series. It gets resoved eventually.
• Big Brother Instinct: Though he technically isn't a brother, Barda has this in regards to Lief and Jasmine.
• The Big Guy: One of the strongest characters in the series who isn't a Jalis.
• Birds of a Feather: With Lindal, who's as snarky and ready to tussle as he is.

• Determinator: Never gives up during the quest for the gems. In The Maze of the Beast, when Lief and Jasmine believe the quest lost because the pirates are thought to have both the amethyst and the Belt, Barda tells them otherwise, saying that he'd rather get the gem from the pirates than the Glus in the Maze, and that they can't be sure that they can trust a map which an Ol showed them.
• Flashback: One episode of the anime tells his story in the form of flashbacks.
• Happily Married: To Lindal after the end of the final series.
• Hates Being Touched: Barda is very uncomfortable at being hugged by Lief and Jasmine in The Maze of the Beast, though he doesn't pull away from them.
• Honor Before Reason: He's the most likely to be bound by what's "proper", such as not deceiving the audience at the Rithmere Games or not looting corpses (looking at you, Jasmine).
• Humble Hero: He is not too proud to beg for food and money if he has to.

• It's All My Fault: Barda feels guilt at not being there to help his fellow guards when the Shadow Lord invaded.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Rather gruff (and rude to Josef especially), but undeniably heroic and again, one of the most honourable characters in the series.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Barda was one before the start of the series.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: In the anime at least, Barda is depicted with long hair and can be very attractive.
• Missing Mom: Barda's mother, Min, was killed just before the Shadow Lord's invasion by Prandine.
• Near-Death Experience: Several. In the first book, Barda is stabbed in the chest by Gorl and definitely would have died if not for the nectar from the Lilies of Life. In the sixth book he falls into the River Tor (which is infested with killer worms) while battling pirates on the River Queen, and he himself says later that it is a miracle he didn't get bitten. And in Return to Del he falls into a gripper field while the trio are escaping into the woods to hide from the Grey Guards, and is severely wounded. Then in Withick Mire Dain attempts to murder him through poison (as he has realised that Barda is a major threat to his plans). Thankfully, Lief realises in the nick of time what is happening and uses the Belt to heal Barda.
• Nerves of Steel: Barda is usually a tower of strength, and never gives up on anything. This provides a clue for recognising that the Barda Lief and Jasmine meet after the pirate attack is an Ol, as the real Barda would never have given up or lost hope.
• Official Couple: With Lindal by the end of the third series.

• Team Dad: He assumes this role for Lief and Jasmine early on in the series.

• Token Adult: Amidst the three protagonists. Considering the entire cast, though, it's more like Jasmine and Lief are the token teenagers.

• Unskilled, but Strong: Slightly. Barda's hardly a brute, but as he has far more raw strength than Lief or Jasmine, he doesn't have to rely on being fast or agile, unlike them, and can thus afford a lack of finesse in his attacks.

Jasmine

Voiced by: Ayahi Takagaki (Japanese), Laura Rushfeldt (English)

A wild girl with emerald-green eyes who grew up alone in the Forests of Silence. Her parents were captured by Grey Guards when she was seven, and she was raised by the forest from then on. She can understand the language of the trees and many animals, and possesses great agility and sharp senses, including photographic memory. Fending for herself alone since childhood, she has trouble understanding some social customs.

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• Action Girl: And how. She's small but strong and agile, and wields a dagger with precision. Doom finds that put painfully when he attacks the trio in the dark in the Rithmere Champion Inn. Jasmine cuts him.
• Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed. While Jasmine is still quite good looking in the books, she gave off the vibe of a wild girl. Her anime design adds more girly features and makes her all around more cuter looking.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Jasmine has green hair in the anime, but she has black hair in the books.
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: She has dark hair, and is very stoic and distant, much like Doom.
• Ambiguously Brown: Most noticeably in the anime. Justified considering she'd have barely spent any time indoors, living in the Forests of Silence. It seems to be a partially inherited trait, since her father has tanned skin as well.
• Ancestral Weapon: She uses a dagger with a hilt inlaid with crystal. It used to be her father's.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Lief and Jasmine. Jasmine and Doom have these moments, as well, but in a father-daughter way.
• Babies Ever After: At the end of the third series Jasmine marries Lief and has three children named Anna, Jarred and Endon.
• Badass in Distress: She, Barda and Doom are captured by Fallow and about to be executed on the Place of Punishment. Lief has to come to rescue them.
• Badass Normal: She is small but strong and agile, and wields a dagger with precision.
• Bait-and-Switch: In The Maze of the Beast Jasmine acts as a decoy to draw any potential Shadow Lord spies away from their group. She travels separately from Lief and Barda for a time, only meeting up with them again on board the River Queen.
• Battle Couple: With Lief in the third series.
• Because Destiny Says So: Jasmine only agreed to go on the quest with Lief and Barda because her mother's ghost appeared to her and told her to.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between her and Lief, for the most part.
• Berserk Button: Do not mock Jasmine or her family, or she'll cut you. She doesn't take well to being mocked herself, either.
• Big Sister Instinct: She's immediately ready to rush off and save the little sister she never knew she had. Who, unfortunately for her, doesn't actually exist.
• Breaking the Fellowship: She nearly does this in City of Rats, before she and the others have become full-fledged True Companions, as she feels her differences in opinion may be irreconcilable.
• Broken Bird: Displays this at times. Justified, since she had a pretty hard childhood, she lost her parents at an early age and had to fend for herself for nine years, and then Lief and Barda came with their quest, disturbed the life Jasmine had built up for herself in the Forests.
• Brutal Honesty: She won't take anyone's BS (much to Lief's chagrin, as she consequently tends to go around offending people). As the Piper of Auron notes, however, this isn't inherently a bad thing.
• Captain Obvious: Has a habit of stating the obvious, especially in the anime.
• Character Development: Over the course of the series Jasmine learns to be a bit more trusting and a bit less wild.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Her skills and strength is incredible in the air, swinging from tree to tree. Powerful, brave and good at close range. But when it comes to fighting against magic users, she is hopelessly out matched. She also never learned how to swim, which becomes more than a little frustrating for her in the second series.

• Damsel out of Distress: Laughing Jack holds her hostage in Isle of the Dead, and let's just say that he pays the price for it dearly. After all, her solution to getting herself out of that situation was to trick him into A Fate Worse Than Death.
• Deuteragonist: Of Deltora Shadowlands.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has her moments.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Though she never fully defrosts, Jasmine is considerable less of an Ice Queen than she was in the beginning of the series.
• Depending on the Artist: The color of her hair in the books is black, but in the anime it became green.
• Family of Choice: After her parents are gone Jasmine chooses Filli and Kree as her new family, and later when Barda and Lief appear in her life she begins to think of them like family too.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Glock, seeing as it was only when they were in trouble in Plume that their enmity finally faded.
• Friend to All Living Things: Comes with being able to Speak Fluent Animal. Jasmine instantly sympathizes with any animals she comes across and they all love her back.

• Green-Eyed Monster: A tad over Marilen, when Jasmine believes Lief is to marry her, though it's overshadowed by her bitterness that Lief would hide his own engagement from his friends.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It doesn't take much for her to start yelling at the other party—usually if they've just insulted her.
• Happily Married: To Lief at the end of the third series.
• Heroic BSoD: Jasmine gets this in the second series, when she realises that Faith isn't real and that she was just a pawn used by the Shadow Lord to lure Lief into the Shadowlands.
• Holding Hands: Lief and Jasmine do this often in the third series.
• Hot-Blooded: Matched only by Lief. Barda repeatedly calls them out on it in jest or frustration. She most likely gets it from her father, who was also known for being hot-blooded in his younger days.
• I Am Who?: Jasmine is Doom's daughter.
• Insecure Love Interest: To an extent in the second series. While not ashamed of who she is, she's aware that being a Nature Hero who was Raised by Wolves, she's not exactly queen material and so tries to rationalize that of course Lief wouldn't marry her.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Barda, Sharn and others she met during travels around Deltora.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Ruthless, brutally honest, and somewhat unwilling to see others' point of view, but she always means well, at least.
• Jungle Princess: Though not exactly a princess (though it was falsely implied in Return to Del), Jasmine did grow up wild in a forest.
• Living Emotional Crutch: Lief considers her a "lifeline" for him, and she's what grounds him when he nearly succumbs to the Sister of the South's corruption.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: Doom is Jasmine's father.
• Minor Living Alone: Her parents were taken from her when she was only seven years old, causing her to fend for herself and grow up alone in a forest which most in Del are afraid of.
• Nature Hero: Due to her up-bringing, Jasmine has a great respect for nature, and treats them as she would people.
• Near-Death Experience: In Dread Mountain, Jasmine receives a blow from a Vraal which knocks her unconscious; in the same book she walks into a Dread Gnome trap and nearly falls to her death (Lief manages to catch her hand in time and pulls her up again with Barda's help). Then when the trio are escaping their tunnel-prison she is hit by one of the Gnomes' poisoned arrows which are said to kill a person in seconds, and only lives because Lief helps her by giving her the ruby in the Belt to draw strength from.
• Never Learned to Read: Or not well, at least.
• No Social Skills: It doesn't take long before Lief and Barda realize that growing up with no human interaction means that Jasmine has little sense of compromise, and that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her people skills.
• Not So Stoic: First when she sees Manus reuniting with his people, and later in Return to Del when she realises that Doom is her father. She breaks down into tears.
• Oblivious to Love: Played with in the second series. She's obviously not that socially clueless that she doesn't know how Lief feels about her, rather, she ignores it due to her anger at the time and becomes convinced that she's being overlooked in favor of Marilyn. She's left feeling more than a little shocked when it eventuates that Pirran pipe or no Pirran pipe, Lief would have thrown away his duties as king and relentlessly chased her in order to bring her back to him.

• Only Sane Man: She is this in episode 22 of the anime, as only she knows something is up about Francoise.
• Parental Abandonment: Both her parents were captured by Grey Guards and taken to the Shadowlands when she was seven, leaving her to fend for herself.
• Picky Eater: Jasmine refuses to drink Queen Bee Cider, as she does not like the overly sweet taste of it.
• Poor Communication Kills: While understandable to her having No Social Skills, virtually the entire conflict of the second series could've been avoided had she at least told Barda about her suspicions, even if she was angry at Lief and Doom at the time.
• Properly Paranoid: She had to be to survive. This ends up saving everyone's lives more than once. She gets it from her dad.
• Raised by Wolves: She was raised by trees.
• Rebellious Spirit: She has a hard time following orders, and is used to fending for herself with everything. She gets it from her father.
• Red Herring: Set up as the main contender for heir in Return to Del after Dain was debunked. Of course, if you're looking at this page, you should know who really turned out to be the heir.
• Refusal of the Call: When she's "revealed" to be heir, she's horrified and makes it clear she wants nothing to do with it.
• Ruling Couple: At the end of the series, with Lief.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: She can put her ear to the ground and tell you if anyone is approaching. And, if so, how many. And how big they are. She can also talk to trees.
• She Cleans Up Nicely: At one point in the first series, Jasmine has gone incognito and traveled away from Lief and Barda because, as a wild girl accompanied by animal friends, she's the most recognizable member of their party. She washes, puts on a dress, covers her Wild Hair with a scarf, and puts on make up. When she later (accidentally) meets up with Lief and Barda, it takes them a long time to recognize her.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend: Or Lief Is Not My Boyfriend, rather. She has a bit of this in her interactions with Jinks, who mentions Lief to her, as she's still struggling with her recent trust issues regarding him.
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Mostly with Kree and Filli, although she has demonstrated the ability to understand most animal languages.
• The Stoic: Like her father, Jasmine tends to keep her emotions to herself, causing her to seem indifferent and callous at times. However, she does care.
• Talking to Plants: She understands the trees.

• Tragic Keepsake: Some of the things Lief sees in Jasmine's nest in the Forest of Silence are keepsakes of the parents she had lost. Special mention goes to Jasmine's dagger, which used to be her father's, which she treasures deeply and is distraught when she loses it in the Shifting Sands, and the 'wake the bear, do not fear' drawing which her father had given to her long ago and which Jasmine still kept for all those years.
• Tsundere: Has shades of this, though (barring Flanderization in the anime) she's not too heavy on the tsun.
• Unwitting Pawn: In the second series. The Shadow Lord uses her to lure Lief into the Shadowlands, by making Jasmine believe that she had a sister trapped there. Jasmine breaks down when she realises this and the fact that Faith wasn't real after all.
• Weak, but Skilled: Jasmine's general fighting style, due to her small stature, especially in the fourth book of the first series, The Shifting Sands, where she's classified as 'agility'.
• Wild Hair: Her hair is constantly described as tangled.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Justified, as she grew up in a forest fending for herself. Though she is still very young in other ways.

Others

Jarred (SPOILERS)

The initial protagonist of "The Forests of Silence" before the present day, who was the best friend of King Endon. But later uncovered the truth about the Shadow Lord's deception that kept the Royal family blind to the suffering of the people.

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See "Doom" on this page for more details.

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