Raoden
also known as Spirit, Master Spirit, Kaloo
The newly crowned king of Arelon — the first Elantrian of restored Elantris. Silver-skinned, white-haired, a heart that beats again, Dor light at his fingertips. The Chasm line he taught the Elantrians to add to their Aons he scored into the southern road; the city woke around him as the Shaod finished. EL:EL:Ch 61
King of Arelon, crowned in the palace throne room within the hour of Telrii's pyre — the first openly Elantrian king since the Reod, taken by the Shaod the night his father purged the city and now ruling from within an Elantrian body. EL:EL:Ch 56 superseded at EL:EL:Ch 61
A flamboyant Duladen aristocrat who arrives in Kae claiming to be one of the few survivors of the revolution that razed the republic. He says he has been hiding in southern Arelon and has come to bid on the holdings King Iadon meant to grant a replacement for Baron Edan. Dressed in cascades of bright silk, perpetually overmannered, and surrounded by the standard Dula entourage of a single oversized servant. EL:EL:Ch 50 superseded at EL:EL:Ch 56
The name a hooded Elantrian gives the new arrival Mareshe when asked who has just saved him from Shaor's gang. Spoken from the translation of Aon Rao — "spirit" — and chosen on the spot so the jeweler will not place him as someone he has seen on the outside. EL:EL:Ch 7 superseded at EL:EL:Ch 50
Crown prince of Arelon, young and well-liked, who wakes one ordinary morning in his rooms in Kae to discover that the Shaod has taken him in the night. EL:EL:Ch 1 superseded at EL:EL:Ch 7
Known facts
- cast-into-elantrisWhen the Shaod takes him, his father King Iadon refuses to meet his eyes and orders the priests to prepare him quietly and throw him into Elantris — the crown prince cannot be seen to have become an Elantrian. Inside the gates Raoden decides not to give up his name or his pride.EL:EL:Ch 1
- officially-dead-of-diseaseKing Iadon's court declares Raoden dead of an unexpected disease — the coughing shivers — the day before his bride arrives, and holds a quick closed-casket funeral. The casket is carved with Aons of hope and peace; the priests will not let Sarene look inside, citing disfigurement.EL:EL:Ch 2
- chooses-spirit-as-aliasKnowing that the prince's face would be recognised even ruined, Raoden takes a new name the first time a stranger asks: Spirit, from the translation of Aon Rao. The choice quietly commits him to a second life inside Elantris that no one on the outside can connect to the dead crown prince.EL:EL:Ch 7
- finds-an-aondor-bookSorting Galladon's scavenged library, Raoden identifies one coverless volume — written entirely in pure Aons — as a treatise on AonDor, using a second volume as a dictionary. He sets himself the project of translating it; his old schooling in pure-Aon reading should, he hopes, come back.EL:EL:Ch 13
- collecting-elantrian-seed-cornRaoden has been quietly pocketing the corn pouch each new Elantrian arrives with — seed corn, required by the Korathi sacrifice — and means to plant it in the garden he is clearing beside the chapel. His argument to Karata is simple: feed the city and the city stops tearing itself apart over food.EL:EL:Ch 13
- engaged-to-sarene-by-correspondenceRaoden's engagement to Sarene of Teod was carried entirely by letter and by seon. She wrote first about a year before the Shaod took him; after five months of witty correspondence she proposed for a political union, he accepted, and they spoke evenings through their seons — the bond left open for hours. He had genuinely been looking forward to the marriage when the Shaod erased him. If he could bring a single possession into Elantris, it would be those letters.EL:EL:Ch 16
- hands-seed-corn-to-galladonRaoden pulls out the bags of corn he has been hiding in the chapel wall and hands them to Galladon to grade and plant. The farmer protests — Elantrians do not survive a season, never mind a harvest — and Raoden answers that if his band do not eat the crop, the next to come in after them will, and that the city needs the demonstration that the past does not have to become the future.EL:EL:Ch 16
- sees-his-elantrian-face-in-cleaned-marbleIn the polished marble of the cleaned chapel Raoden catches his own reflection and understands at last why no one inside Elantris recognises Iadon's son. Two weeks of the Shaod have already taken his hair, dulled his skin to flat grey, mottled it with the Elantrian blotches, sunk his eyes, and started to wrinkle his lips. The reader behind "Spirit" is gone from the face the world used to know.EL:EL:Ch 16
- pain-still-rises-after-three-weeksThree weeks into the Shaod, Raoden's Hoed-pain is climbing rather than levelling off as everyone else describes — coming in waves, leaking into his dreams, and gathering force every time he is hurt. He has brought purpose to dozens of Elantrians who joined his band but cannot bring the same relief to himself.EL:EL:Ch 19
- healed-in-elantris-as-a-childAt age eight Raoden shattered his leg in a fall and was carried into Elantris over Iadon's objections by his mother — who died some years later — and healed by an Elantrian who traced an elaborate Aon Ien over him. The visit gave him his first taste of contradicting his father and shaped his lifelong sympathy for the city.EL:EL:Ch 19
- establishes-new-elantris-perimeterWith Saolin's help Raoden has walled off a defensible quarter — eleven streets in, half of its perimeter walled, sentries posted at every intersection — that the band has begun calling New Elantris. The system has so far held against Shaor's uncoordinated raids; a multidirectional assault would still overrun it.EL:EL:Ch 22
- chooses-to-hide-new-elantrisRaoden decides, after Sarene's first visit, that the band's recovery must be kept hidden from the outside — Arelon only suffers a city of pitiful wretches; an organised army of men no blade can kill would force the king to act. He stages Mareshe as a pompous "Aanden" for the princess and goes out himself as "Spirit," a lackey, to watch her.EL:EL:Ch 23
- pool-promiseStanding at the edge of the hidden pool and feeling its pull, Raoden backs away and makes Galladon swear, plainly, to carry him to it once he becomes Hoed — refusing to live trapped in the Hall of the Fallen like the rest.EL:EL:Ch 25
- seed-corn-gambitWalks unarmed into Shaor's bank and dumps sacks of hard, unchewable seed corn at her men's feet; that night the first wildman comes asking to cook — the first request for civilisation Elantris has heard from one of them in years.EL:EL:Ch 31
- slime-causeStudying AonDor in his library books, Raoden traces the slime that blankets Elantris to Aon Ashe: pre-Reod Elantris glowed with the Dor, and a translucent fungus fed on that glow. When the city went dark, the fungus rotted in place.EL:EL:Ch 34
- dor-attacks-himRaoden's collapses are not the ordinary Hoed-pain — they are the Dor itself trying to use him as an Aon and finding no working gate. Karata sees him glow as the attack passes. Galladon notes the strongest pre-Reod Elantrians were the first to fall to the mobs, overwhelmed before they could fight — the same pressure.EL:EL:Ch 37
- pool-vowIf the Dor takes Raoden for good, Galladon and Karata have promised to carry him to the pool in the mountains rather than let him linger as a Hoed.EL:EL:Ch 37
- aondor-instant-aptitudeDrew working AonDor strokes on his first attempt — an aptitude Galladon calls extraordinary; even before the Reod, some students went years before their first line caught.EL:EL:Ch 43
- restored-aondor-with-chasm-lineAfter days of failing against the unchanged map, Raoden reasons that the Chasm opened by the Reod should itself appear in every Aon, adds a small bottom stroke for it, and on the next attempt the long-blocked Dor floods through him for the first time in ten years — the discovery that breaks AonDor back open.EL:EL:Ch 49
- fencing-trained-by-eondelYears before the Shaod took him, Raoden asked Eondel to teach him to fight; the old soldier picked fencing as the discipline most useful for a politician. The training that was meant as one more way to embarrass his father's policies turns out to be the only reason he can hold a syre against Sarene without bleeding through his shirt.EL:EL:Ch 52
- revealed-alive-publiclyDrops his Kaloo illusion in front of Telrii and a Guard detachment, claiming the Arelene throne as Iadon's living son. The Guard refuses to strike at the heir and Telrii flees the room; the conspirators kneel and acknowledge him king, Sarene still trying to absorb that the man she watched be buried was her husband all along.EL:EL:Ch 53
- crowned-king-of-arelonCrowned king of Arelon within the hour of Telrii's pyre, in the palace throne room — by Patriarch Seinalan of Shu-Korath, or rather by Sarene when the patriarch dropped the crown at the sight of his Elantrian face. The nobility kneel; some cheer. The first openly Elantrian king to sit the throne since the Reod.EL:EL:Ch 56
- captured-by-dilafKnocked unconscious by Dilaf in Roial's mansion on the first night of the Dakhor attack on Kae — his guards cut down around him, his sword still on the floor when the priest crossed the room at impossible speed. The newly-crowned king is taken back to the Derethi chapel in chains.EL:EL:Ch 58
- stabbed-and-hoedRun through the stomach by Dilaf in front of Kiin's house while Sarene watches from the roof — a casual blade through the gut from a priest who had momentarily forgotten he was a hostage. The combined weight of the wound, the Dor, and his failure breaks him, and the prince falls to the Hoed mantra "failed my love" alongside the Elantrians he was crowned to lead.EL:EL:Ch 59
- head-wound-permanentCarries away from Dilaf's blow at Roial's mansion a constant disoriented swimming behind his eyes. An Elantrian does not heal; the prince realises, before Dilaf even stabs him, that the vertigo from the head wound will live with him as long as he does.EL:EL:Ch 59
- sees-aon-rao-in-citiesFrom beneath the surface of his own Hoed pain, sees Aon Rao overlaid on the map he has walked all his life — Elantris is the square, Kae and the three other outer cities are the circles, the four roads between are the connecting strokes. The whole complex is one immense AonDor figure, broken because the Chasm cut the modifier no one had thought to read.EL:EL:Ch 60
- restores-elantrisDrags a stick along the dirt of the southern road between Elantris and the ruins of Toa, scoring the Chasm line into the ground that no one had drawn since the Reod. The line completes Aon Rao in the geography of the five cities. The Dor erupts; the Shaod finishes its work on him in the same instant; his heart beats again. The first king of restored Elantris.EL:EL:Ch 61
- married-sareneMarries Sarene in Elantris under Father Omin in a Korathi ceremony — gold suit, silver skin — exchanging pendants graven with Aon Omi. Her gift to him: a pendant of dark stone, polished to mirror against his silver hair. His to her: pale jade banded with gold to match hers, carved by Taan himself. The king of restored Elantris and the princess of Teod joined.EL:EL:Ch 63
- dakhor-bones-are-fjordell-aondorHolds a fragment of Dakhor bone in his hand on the morning of his wedding and sees ancient Fjordell characters worked into the carving — the Derethi monks have written their own AonDor into their bodies. With Dilaf dead but the monastery standing, the only thing that had ever kept Fjorden west of Elantris has just learned to access the Dor without it.EL:EL:Ch 63
- suspects-multiple-dor-pathsPutting Shuden's glowing ChayShan strike together with Dakhor bone-aondor, Raoden suspects that there is more than one path into the Dor — and that Wyrn now controls at least one of them. He resolves to interrogate the other restored Elantrians about seons, whose own origin he has never been able to find in any of the books, as soon as the wedding is done.EL:EL:Ch 63
- abolishes-serfdomA week after his wedding, Raoden has proclaimed serfdom illegal in Arelon and rules from inside Elantris itself. The people would not let him dissolve the nobility outright; he leaves the titles in place but binds each lord to the service of Elantris as a food distributor for the country's remote regions — closer to what the Arelene nobles should have been before Iadon than to what Iadon made of them.EL:EL:Epilogue
- gifted-dashe-two-orphaned-seonsIn thanks for Dashe's service to New Elantris, Raoden gave him two seons whose own masters had died and who, after the restoration of Elantris returned their wits, had no one to serve. Dashe kept one and gave the other — bearing Aon Aeo for bravery — to his adopted daughter Matisse.EL:HoE:Prologue
Events
- EL:EL:Ch 23 Walks the princess in to the university under the name "Spirit," pretending to be a trusted lackey of Aanden, and stays behind with him and Karata when she is led back to the gate.
- EL:EL:Ch 23 Joins the noble unloading line under the name "Spirit," catches Sarene when she slips off the cart, and then breaks the Elantrians' hesitation by taking the first bite of a raw turnip — at which the rest of the crowd surges forward to be fed.
- EL:EL:Ch 28 As "Spirit," takes Sarene aside before the distribution and warns her — with visible guilt — to keep her guards close, since not every Elantrian is as tame as the ones she has been feeding.
- EL:EL:Ch 29 Kneels in the shadow of the wall, rocking and cradling a dead Elantrian; Sarene looks down at him from above and decides she will never see him again.
- EL:EL:Ch 41 Walks Sarene through New Elantris for the first time, dressed in the village's clashing oranges and yellows and greeted warmly by every Elantrian they pass.
- EL:EL:Ch 41 Shows Sarene the Korathi chapel, then convulses on the marble as the Dor tries to use him as a gate; she catches his head and holds him through the spasm.
- EL:EL:Ch 58 Dropped unconscious against the far wall of the chapel by one of Dilaf's monks; the new king of Arelon is now Dakhor's prisoner.
- EL:EL:Ch 59 Staggers toward Sarene with one outstretched arm; Dilaf turns from his hostages, runs him through the stomach, and leaves him to drop into the Hoed.
- EL:EL:Ch 60 Bleeding, mumbling the Hoed mantra — Galladon binds his stomach wound with a jacket and slings him over a shoulder.
- EL:EL:Ch 61 Stands in the open gate silver-skinned and white-haired, immolates a charging monk with Aon Daa, and orders the rest of Dilaf's troops out of Arelon within the hour.
- EL:EL:Ch 62 Lands in Teoras in a flash of Aon Tia, hurls a Aon Daa bolt into Dilaf that throws him into a wall, and short-jumps Sarene fifty feet down the street — the only Aons he can still afford this far from Elantris.
- EL:EL:Epilogue Stands at the head of the crowd above Hrathen's open barrow with Shuden and Lukel beside him, silver-skinned and glowing even in the warm light, and catches Sarene's eye when it is time to begin.
- EL:EL:Ch 44 Listens in the library as Sarene briefs him on outside Arelon; stunned by news of Iadon's death.
- EL:EL:Ch 50 Arrives uninvited at Roial's pavilion mid-practice, flatters Sarene, and accepts her sharpened-blade challenge — escaping with a flower trick rather than admit she actually hit him.
- EL:EL:Ch 53 Argues against assassination at the meeting; called away by Sarene in private and confesses he is Spirit — alive, illusion-painted, and back inside Kae to keep her alive.
Backreferences
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 1
- factRaoden
- factIadon
- factIen
- factSeon
- factElao
- factGalladon
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 2
- factRaoden
- factIadon
- factSarene
- factSarene
- factAons
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 4
- factAonDor
- factAon Deo
- factKiin
- factRoial
- factLukel
- factTaan
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 5
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 6
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 7
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 7
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- factAonDor
- factAon Ashe
- factAon Rao
- factMareshe
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 8
- factSarene
- factTelrii
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 10
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 10
- factIen
- factGalladon
- factGalladon
- factMaare
- factRiil
- factSaolin
- factEondel
- factTaan
- factTaan
- factElantris University
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 11
- factSarene
- factRoial
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 13
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 13
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- factIadon
- factKarata
- factLoren
- factKahar
- factAon Sheo
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 14
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 16
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 16
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- factIen
- factTaan
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 17
- factSarene
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 19
- factElantrians
- factThe Shaod
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- factAonDor
- factDor
- factAon Ien
- factAon Tia
- factHall of the Fallen
- factShaor's Men
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 20
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 22
- factElantris
- factElantrians
- factRaoden
- factNew Elantris
- factAon Edo
- factDion
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 23
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 23
- factRaoden
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 25
- factThe Shaod
- factRaoden
- factAon Aon
- factElantrian Library
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 26
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 28
- factAonDor
- factSaolin
- factSaolin
- factSaolin
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 29
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 31
- factSaolin
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 32
- factIadon
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 34
- factRaoden
- factShaor
- factShaor's Men
- factKayana
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 35
- factSarene
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 37
- factRaoden
- factRaoden
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 40
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 40
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 41
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 43
- factSarene
- factSarene
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 44
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 44
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 46
- factAonDor
- factAon Ehe
- factAtad Mountains
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 47
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 47
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 49
- factRaoden
- factAonDor
- factAonDor
- factThe Chasm
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 50
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 50
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 52
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 52
- factRaoden
- factKarata
- factKarata
- factAonDor
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 53
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 53
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 53
- factRaoden
- factRoial
- factRoial
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 54
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 55
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 55
- factGalladon
- factAonDor
- factAon Nae
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 56
- factDilaf
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 57
- factHrathen
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 58
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 58
- factKiin
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 59
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 60
- factAon Rao
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 61
- factElantris
- factElantrians
- factGalladon
- factGalladon
- factKarata
- factElantrian Pool
- factAon Daa
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 62
- factHrathen
- factDilaf
- factAonDor
- factAdien
- factAdien
- summaryEL:EL:Ch 63
- factRaoden
- factIen
- factSarene
- factDakhor
- summaryEL:EL:Epilogue
- factRaoden
- factArelon
- factSaolin
- summaryEL:HoE:Prologue
- summaryEL:HoE:Prologue
- factRaoden
- factMatisse
- factMatisse
- factTaid
- factThe Roost