Daja was cast out by Traders because the Trader mage doing the scrying saw that that was her destiny.
From Sandry's Book, the Trader who tells Niko that Daja is now trangshi is very deliberate in his wording. He doesn't necessarily want to banish her, but says that that is what must be:- "We made this choice after taking the omens… Her fate is to be trangshi. There is nothing you can say to change that, Niklaren Goldeye."
- In Daja's Book she even remarks that she never would have discovered her magic or been able to use it if she was still a Trader.
- In Tris' Book, Daja thinks about how her family and other Traders she knew had been hurt and killed by pirates, pirates who she and the others are only able to fight off together. If she hadn't been banished, the pirates quite likely would have taken Winding Circle.
All "conventional mages" are illusionists.
The only magic they can perform is trickery, to make people think they have magic. Ambient magic is the only kind of magic that can actually do anything.- Wrong. Yarrun clearly could take out fire. That this only created more problems doesn't change the fact that for the third book to work, he must be able to combat at least small fires.
- Isn't Niko an academic mage? T always thought he was. There is no indication he has ambient magic. His specialty is seeing hidden things but he doesn't have an ambient affinity.
- It's also mentioned in Shatterglass that he has learned several new spheres of magic over the years, which ambient mages can't do.
Tris will be the only one of the four kids to take a mage last name in the usual way.
Most mages replace their family names with last names that reflect their powers or just sound cool- e.g., Niklaren Goldeye, Yarrun Firetamer, Aymery Glassfire, Olennika Potcracker, etc. The four main characters haven't done this so far. It's stated that Briar isn't going to; he chose "Briar Moss" and he's going to keep it. Sandry and Daja both have reasons to keep their full names; Sandry is very proud of her noble birth and her family and Daja is equally proud of her heritage. Tris has more or less disowned her family, so it wouldn't be that strange if she took a new mage name eventually. Also, her book will be about her going to Lightsbridge- the academic mages' university- and she might take a mage name after that, to reflect having learned academic magic.- Wouldn't Briar's self-given name already function as a mage name?
- As a corollary to this, Tris' full mage name will be Trisana Coppercurls.
- In "Tris' Book" it's mentioned that copper is an metal aligned with air. This may (or may not) be a very happy coincidence.
Tris will make a career of finding ambient mages.
- Tris has the most teaching experience and aptitude for both standard teaching and helping with more extreme problems like Zhegorz's issues, as well as the best training in seeing and detecting magic, thanks to her training with Niko. Briar notes in his POV that someone needs to do a better job of finding ambient mages before they run into major problems, and given that his teaching track record among the four is second-best, he'd probably be up for helping her. Daja and Sandry would probably pitch in somewhat, with resources or helping teach students whose skills match theirs. But Tris is still looking for her career, and her current plan to keep to quiet magics post-Lightsbridge seems unlikely somehow. This would be a better fit for her.
